The Heir of Morpheus
by Draegyn
Summary: The third in the Book of the Renewal. Events are coming to a head. A long and eagerly awaited soul bond will be realised, no matter if a certain god has to tear up reality to see it happen.
1. Default Chapter

OK, business first, I don't own Sailor Moon.  Second, this is the third in a trilogy, if you want to know what happened before, read the other stories, I can guarantee it'll be confusing if you don't.  Third, this isn't edited **_yet_.  If you want the reason why, check out my bio.  Fourth is… I know there was something but I can't think of it right now, it can wait. **

Read, hopefully enjoy and feel free to send me comments.

Draegyn

The Heir of Morpheus - Prologue

In the beginning there was entropy.  Nothing existed in this state of primal disorder.  There were no dimensions and no substance, only chaos.

Then from the chaos came light.  It was energy and it was substance.  It was order and it was chaos.  It was power and it was aware.  Light wished for growth and evolution.

It imposed Its will upon the chaos around It and so a balance with order was formed.  Order gave chaos form and chaos caused order to change.  So the universe came into being.

In the remnants of untouched chaos, Darkness coalesced.  It was a void and It was an absence.  It was power and It was aware.  It was angry.  Darkness desired the return of chaos to the universe.  

It fought to undo what had been done, to induce entropy once more.  It strove to erase the creation that had been born.  In Its efforts It created evil.

Light and Darkness, They were enemies from the moment They came into being.  When They warred the universe trembled.  At the height of Their conflict, when the blows They struck against one another were strongest, the universe shattered.

Light keened with grief as the shards of Its work lay about It.  

Darkness gloated but the order Light had created to balance with chaos was too strong.  The shards annealed but the healing was incomplete.  So the universe was split into realms.  Each realm was unique and still shards of the first reality remained apart but Light remained constant.  

Darkness cast spears of evil to extinguish Light.  Pride, Anger, Envy, Gluttony, Avarice, Sloth and Lust assailed Light but Light created a defence of humility, patience, kindness, abstinence, liberality, diligence and chastity.  The spears failed, returning to Darkness, and the arrows of Light dissolved and spread to each dimension and shard of existence therein.

Light grew weary of the never-ending battle.  Yet It created Hope and Faith for It would stand fast against Its enemy.  Darkness recoiled.  

Light created Justice, Temperance, Courage and Prudence and they were the javelins it hurled at darkness.  Darkness formed injustice, extravagance, cowardice and foolishness yet they failed to equal the weapons of Light.  

Darkness retreated in defeat to Its small portion of chaos.  There It dwelled as the new dimension of time spun.

Light rejoiced and the power of Its javelins spread throughout the remains of the universe.  The new dimensions joined and intertwined, forming realms.  The remaining shards basked in the brilliance of Light and awoke to awareness in Its ambient radiance.

And so came life.

Light shone in benediction.  It created Love and shared it with Its new children.  Those children flourished but Light was too bright and they could approach their creator.  So Light learned of loneliness.

Reality felt Light's pain and from each new realm and dimension came shadow.  Shadow was of all realms and none.  It did not fear Light and in Shadow's embrace Light found peace.

In Shadow's dark folds, Light's brilliance was concealed.  Thus it came that Light, with Shadow ever at Its side, was able to walk among Its children.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Focusing on a child's story, the woman curled tightly in a foetal position, doing everything within her power to block the presence of her captors from her consciousness.  However, there was no relief from her unrelenting tormenters and even this last bastion of defence would not endure for long.  She could sense them, even now eating away at her psychic boundaries.  Creeping ever closer to the core of her being.  But she would not… could not… submit.  She was the Council's champion and would serve faithfully no matter the price.

She whimpered into the darkness of her mind and the illusion she had built from the legend of creation crumbled.  Her fear built; fear not solely for herself but for the information with which she had been entrusted, information that could not allow to fall into enemy possession.  

**_Who do you serve?_**

**_What do you know?_**

**_Who are you?_**

**_                  What do you see/hear/perceive?_**

Control of her body was stolen from her, leaving her powerful form helpless to resist the enemy's procedures.  The mental whispers assailed her psyche and she convulsed, psychically and physically.  Her screams reverberated throughout her prison and spurred the invaders on in their quest.

      **_Who are you?_**

**_                  Who are your allies?_**

**_      What did you come for?_**

**_                  Why were you here?_**

NO!  

She must not submit!  The danger to the universe was infinite, should the Darkstars ever pry her knowledge from her.  She should have been more cautious, yet how?  She had done all within their power to remain concealed and still she had been discovered.

Futilely she withdrew further into her own mind.  Barrier after barrier she erected around her essence yet the barrage of alien thought persisted.  

      **_What do you serve?_**

**_                  Who are you?_**

She could not endure for much longer and it was essential that she protect the information with which she had been charged.  How could she escape?  The Council needed to be told!

      **_WHO ARE YOU?_**

**_                  WHAT DID YOU LEARN?_**

**_      WHY ARE YOU HERE?_**

Her back arched and she was frozen in a rictus of agony.  

Fingers of power embedded themselves within her shield and she convulsed, as her shields were gradually ripped apart.  There was no method or discipline that could prepare her for the coming misery as her core was laid bare before her insidious interrogators.

The last shield was broached, leaving her mind completely accessible to the invaders but she refused to submit.  She was the Champion and she would die as one.  For all of the vast power arrayed against her, this was her mind and she would shape the confrontation it would hold.  The landscape of her psyche stilled and settled as her self-image prepared to do battle.  She did not have long to wait.

Two shadows coalesced before her.  Neither possessed form yet the woman perceived one as masculine and the second as feminine.  She raised an imperious eyebrow.  "I do not suppose either of you _rekva_ would care to release me?  I am a law abiding being and have done nothing to merit this punishment."

In the reality of the mind their malice was visible in the intangible darkness that formed them.

      **_You trespassed within our Master's realm._**

**_                  You are no longer within the purlieu of any law._**

**_      You are mercy to the whim of those with power._**

**_                  Our whim._**

The woman tossed her fall of long golden hair over her shoulders and felt the constriction in her chest ease.  Her position was hopeless.  She had known that before yet hearing her two adversaries seemed to free her from the fear that had almost drowned her.  With a serene smile, she asked, "May I know who it is that would control me?"

      **_Silence!  You are not the one who will demand answers._**

**_Such presumption for a lesser being._****__**

"I only wished to know because I prefer to name those I battle."  She drew the form of her sword's gold hilt in the aether around her and it formed in answer to her will.  Her eyes became deathly intent.  "I will not submit to you or you kind."

      **_You stand no chance against the foremost lieutenant of Kaos._**

**_                  And the Handmaiden of Kaos._**

**_You will reveal your secrets to us._**

The Doom Phantom and Metallia then.  She was damned but she had known that already.  All that remained in the ruins of her task was to ensure that the future was saved.  She spared a thought for the Divine Stars who awaited her message and for the future that was even now being worked towards.

Shadowy hands reached towards her and she brandished her sword before her.  There was no substance in their forms for her sword to work against but that was acceptable.  She had not intended to use it upon them.  Cold seared her where shadowed fingers brushed her skin and tendrils of power started to entangle themselves in her soul.  Then her blade was reversed and with surprising little pain she impaled herself upon it.

Distantly she felt the outrage of the two Darkstars but she felt the realm of Death beckon and with abandon she hastened towards it.  Freedom and a measure of triumph, despite her failed mission, lay in the embrace of infinity.  She could not salvage anything but she could deny Kaos the information his servants sought and she would as the last of her soul's energy left her empty body.  The news of Elysion's birth would remain secret yet, giving the young Star time to mature into his power.  The Renewal would come and there was nothing that any of the Council's enemies could do about it, not even the Darkheart itself.

A tendril of darkness reached towards her fleeing soul and brush against her but then she was beyond its reach and then she knew nothing but light.

The tendril of darkness withdrew as even the evidence of the Guardian Star's passing dissipated along with the last possibility of gaining the knowledge that the dead guardian had possessed.  The reality around it dissolved as the young immortal's mind shut down in the absence of her essence.  Unable to enter the realms created and governed by the Speaker and its children the raw darkness was left to inhabit the void between realms.  Yet it was not displeased.

Two other presences joined it and debased themselves before the greater darkness.  For an eternity and yet less than an instant the darkness considered them with its utterly alien perspective.  They had failed it and yet without their service it would not have learned a single, world-shattering fact from the fleeing soul.

The time of Elysion had come.

With that thought came, not mercy for such a concept was foreign to the darkness, but reprieve.  Plots teemed within the thought processes of the darkness and then a course was decided upon.  The assassination of the mate of its future nemesis was assigned to the darkness' handmaiden. Then the darkness turned its attention to more immediate concerns.  Metallia's orders would be decades in the fulfilling and the darkness would not be idle.  It required a cats-paw for the realities that obey the laws of the Council and a suitable candidate had been delivered into its possession.

The uninhabited body of the Guardian remained for the most part undamaged and still potent with power.  A portion of the darkness detached itself from the main and, witnessed by its servants, it filled the empty vessel.

Crimson eyes blinked open as the darkness viewed the physical realm for the first time.  The darkness commanded its lesser self to stand.  Gathering the reigns of its new form's power and claiming it as its own the darkness loosed its lesser self upon the universe.

The darkness writhed in evil glee as its new golem departed.  It was only a fraction of the strength of the entirety of the darkness, yet the golem possessed the power to level galaxies and leave chaos in its wake.  Thus the work of the Speaker, the accursed Light that formed the universe, would be undone.

The Darkness that the Guardian would have named Kaos, laughed.

Rekva – untranslatable epithet in the high tongue


	2. 1

Same deal – unedited and possibly to be scrapped if I think of something better.  Sorry about being so slow with this.

Chapter one

Wings outspread, the Guardian gracefully landed in the workspace at the top of the centre tower of the Silver Keep.  Without a stumble she went from flight to a walk and, without hurrying, made her way to the stairs. In the same quiet and unobtrusive manner she moved through the keep.  None noticed her passage, which was as she desired.  She truly did not wish to socialise right then.  A glimpse of blue shone at the periphery of her vision and caught her attention, stopping her in her tracks.

With a wistful smile she turned to gaze out the tall window at Earth rising on the horizon.  Absently she leaned against the stone frame.  It had been two solar years since she had seen him.  Two years in which her brother had done all within his considerable power to prepare him.  Two years was nothing compared to the centuries she had already endured…  

It was merely an eternity.

She missed him more than she could say, obstinate, difficult, contrary man that he was.  It baffled her as to how she could have lived happily for so many centuries without him when only two years had come close to driving her insane.  Yet each time she was tempted to go to him she forced herself to stay away.  Once before his life had been cut short and she would not risk a repeat of that tragedy.  She would wait as long as he needed her to.  She would endure the solitude and endless yearning, knowing he was there, just beyond her reach.  She would do that and more.  He would come for her, she knew that implicitly, and when that time came her universe would be complete.  Until then, for both of their sakes, she would wait.  She would wait and her Mamo-chan would join her.

The air pressure changed subtly and drew her attention away from the Earth and the past.  "Greetings Diamond, how do you fare?"

There came a soft shuffling as he quietly approached her.  "I am well princess, and you?"

She turned to face the white-haired man.  "I would be better if you called me Usagi."

"You are a princess."

"And you are a prince.  Rank is of no importance Diamond.  I thought you knew that."

His solemn face wore a sad smile.  "You are different."

She shook her head.  "Not so much as you think… at least call me Serenity."

He bowed his head.  "I could never deny you anything Serenity."

"That does not stop you from persisting in being formal despite my wishes."  She snorted and then sighed as she looked out to the Earth once more.  

"You miss him do you not?"

Silver-gold brows pressed together.  "Miss who?" she asked quickly.

"Endymion," Diamond replied solemnly, "Or Darien or whatever he calls himself in this lifetime."

"Mamoru," she breathed.

Diamond nodded.  "Protector," he translated and his amethyst eyes met hers briefly.  "I hope that he deserves that name."

Serenity did not answer for a moment.  Mamoru's existence must be kept secret yet Diamond was not only an ally but a friend.  True, he was the sort of friend who made her uncomfortable on occasion because of the unrequited feelings he had towards her, but he was a friend nonetheless.  "He does," she eventually replied, "In so many ways and in so many times has he earned the name."

"So it is true."  Diamond sighed.  "You have fallen in love with a human.  The Eternal Couple has come and the end of the Interdiction is approaching."

"Excuse me?"

"You and Mamoru are the Eternal Couple that has been prophesised to herald the end of Earth's isolation are you not?  A human and a Lunarian soul-pairing?"

"No," Serenity denied.  "We are not.  Mamoru is not human, Diamond, and he becomes even less so with every day that my twin trains him in the way of the guardians… much the way that I am only nominally of the Lunarian kindred.  Even before the Fall Mamoru was not truly of the people he ruled and now he most definitely is not.  There is no way that he could be held as representative of all humans and so any soul-bond he forms is not significant to Earth as a whole."

"Like you and the Lunarians."

"Yes," she answered quietly.

"You did not deny that you were bonded to him," he said after a moment.

She searched his amethyst eyes for any hint of the misguided obsession he had held when they first met and found only regret.  "No, I did not," she agreed softly.

He stepped beside her and looked out at the sapphire world that hung in the sky.  "Why are you not with him now then?  You have waited so long for him."

"And I will continue to wait as long as it is necessary."  She followed his gaze and once more contemplated the planet her kindred's home orbited.  "Do you remember much of the Darkmoon Crisis?" she asked suddenly.

He frowned and looked to her.  "Of course, although often I wish I did not.  It is my memory of future events that has been sealed, not past or present.  Why do you ask?  Oh…"

"Do you remember what you told him when we took the scouts and went to face you?  You and Mamoru were facing off and you told him…"

"'You want her but you will never have her'.  Yes princess, I remember.  I lied."

She nodded.  "I thought so."

"I am not proud of it," he told her earnestly.  His eyes almost begged for understanding.  "But he stood there defiant and strong against my power and I saw in him someone I remembered.  I cannot recall exactly who any longer but I knew he would come to have something that I would always want but could never have.  He stood before me, secure in his ignorance and unknowing of what treasures the future would lay at his feet and so I retaliated in the only manner I could think of.  I lied."

"Diamond…"

He looked away, lowering his head in shame.  "I am sorry Serenity, so very, very sorry."

"Hey," she smiled tenderly as she touched his shoulder and, with a mix of magic and muscle, forced him to look at her again.  "I understand and Mamoru will also."

Diamond shook his head sadly.  "No he will not Serenity.  I need no knowledge of the future to know that.  Still it is more than I had hoped for that you would forgive me."

Serenity did not know how to respond to that and so all that she did in answer was to squeeze his shoulder slightly before she released him.

He gave her a small smile and then sighed.  "I am not here to languish over past sins princess, I normally do that in solitude.  Originally I came to inform you that your mother awaits your arrival in her private chambers.

"My thanks, my friend.  I will go to her directly."  

Diamond bowed and quietly left her while she took a last, longing glance at Earth before continuing on her way.  Shortly afterwards she reached the carved doors that marked the entrance to the queen's apartment and slipped inside.  Moments later, in one of the inner dressing rooms, she found her mother and her mother's companion.  She nodded in greeting to both the queen and her red-haired childhood friend, Naru before reaching out with her mind to her mother.

_*Mama?*_

_"Serenity!* The queen looked up from the scroll she had been reading while Naru attended to her extraordinarily long hair.  *__So quiet you are becoming my precious one.  I had not realised that you had returned.*_

_*Practice Mama.  If I had not acquired some skills in stealth by this time then I would demand that you replace __me.__* Without a word Naru handed her the hairbrush and she took the other Lunarian's place.  With slow and even strokes she ran the brush through her mother's silver tresses much the way her mother had done for her as a child.  *__You summoned me?*_

_*Aye my child.  I have a task for you.*_

_*A task?*  Her fingers nimbly bound the lengths of silver strands into two round buns which left streamers of hair fall free to the ground in twin ponytails.  __*What kind of task and where?  Earth?*_

Serenity stood and turned to face her with a sympathetic smile.  *_No, not Earth I fear but another world on the opposite side of the galaxy.*_

_*Still within this realm though?*  The younger woman frowned as she reviewed her geography lessons from so long ago in her mind.  The realm or dimension that Earth and the Moon inhabited was one that had no real Divine Star to represent it within the Council for all that it was one of the largest within the physical realm._

*_Aye.  Kakyuu of Kinmoku requests aid.* _

_*And you have agreed to send some?  Me?*_

Solemn silver eyes regarded her.  *_Do you object?*_

"Of course not!" the younger Serenity replied aloud.  "I always enjoy travelling."  Naru chuckled softly from near the desk where she was organising scrolls and message crystals.  When the younger Lunarian had still been a child, she had followed Serenity like a faithful shadow and knew very well of the princess' wanderlust.  In part she too shared it, for it was a consequence of the absence of a soul partner to anchor them that left their kind so rootless.  Naru was perhaps the only other Lunarian to have searched anywhere near as long as Serenity for her soulmate and, unlike the blonde, she was still seeking.

"That is not why I asked," the queen remonstrated with mock severity, "As you know full well."

"You want to know how I feel about going so far from Earth," the Guardian guessed with a sigh.  She tossed the bush to Naru and fell into the comfortable armchair.  "What can I say?" she asked wearily, "I want to be as close as I can to him but all I am doing is putting him in danger.  A trip may not be what I want but it is what I need.

The Divine Star watched her closely.  "You are certain?"

She nodded almost reluctantly.  "Yes, I am."

*_Very well,* Selene declared mentally, *_So___ it shall be.*_

"So what is the crisis?"

Her mother held her hand out and Serenity grasped it, allowing her dam and goddess to pull her back to her feet.  "I will explain it as we walk.  Naru?" she glanced at the unobtrusive woman.  "Where is the messenger awaiting my response?"

"In the onyx chamber of the east wing, Majesty." Naru collected an armful of documents and then hurried to lead them to the appropriate suite.

"Onyx?  Is the messenger's mood that dark?" the princess asked in concern as she strode along at her mother's side.  "If I had known that the need was so urgent I would have used more haste."

"To hear the messenger speak you would be made to believe that the universe itself were threatened Usagi," Naru reassured her with a touch of levity.

Selene's lips flattened.  It was an uncharacteristic display of irritation that displayed her trust in the two she had allowed to observe it.  "Her commitment to her duty is admirable but Kakyuu should have seen that she received the lessons she required lessons in diplomacy and tact.  She does not understand the virtue of patience."

Serenity blinked.  This mysterious messenger must have been _impossible_ to speak with intelligibly if even her mother was frustrated.  "Does she have a reason to be so difficult?"

"She believes that she does," Naru sighed and dislodged some of the data crystals she carried.  Serenity hurriedly relieved her of some of her burden and the other woman smiled her thanks.  "The problem is not as immediate as she seems to think though."

"It is a problem that has existed for millennia," Selene agreed grimly, "It existed before the Fall.  A Guardian Star went rogue and allied with the Darkheart.  She was destruction incarnate for several decades until the aftermath of the Fall forced her into retreat.  In recent times she has become active yet again and that activity seems to be in this realm where there are no Divine Stars to police her."

"When it was the rest of the sector that was at risk, it did not matter but it has begun to threaten Kinmoku so…" Naru trailed off and rolled her eyes.  

The blonde Lunarian understood instantly.  She was to be interacting with mortals in the true sense of the word, that word – short-sighted.  Still, how bad could it be?  Her only interaction with non-Stars may have been with her Lunarian people, who were practically Stars anyway, and Terrans, which was not exactly a wide exposure. Still, Earth's humans after a few initial problems had been, if not wonderful company, then vastly entertaining.  Often, they had been both.  Surely she could learn to associate favourably with another expression of mortality.  She only realised how difficult it might prove to be when they reached the east wing and the onyx room and she met the messenger.  

With long black hair and skimpy black fighting leathers, the woman gave Serenity the impression of one of the reincarnate scouts redesigned to a Terran bikie theme.  It was a strange thought and she mused over it for a moment.  Her collar was reminiscent of the sailor scout's sailor collars but with a bikini top?  Thigh high black leather boots with three inch heels?  Were those shorts or a second skin?  Yes, there seemed to be a common theme these days with strong mortal warriors towards less coverings in their battle attire.  For the woman was a strong warrior, an alpha warrior in fact for all that she had no potential to be a star or even a guardian.  She was brought out of her wandering thoughts when Naru nudged her telepathically.

*_Usa__!  Do not just stand there!  Do something!*_

_*Hmmm?* She frowned and looked at the woman again before gritting her teeth in understanding.  She had been so distracted by her thoughts that she had not noticed the woman's inexcusable rudeness towards her mother.  While her mother was becoming more and more affronted, the stranger continued to make more and more outrageous and pompous demands.  The demands were not for herself, Serenity granted her, but for her world.  Still that was no excuse._

She banished the objects she carried into a temporary pocket dimension and considered the situation with the problem solving mind of a guardian… the guardian of the Divine Star being verbally assaulted.

"So you like my outfit?" she asked Naru loudly, her voice cutting into the messenger's diatribe.  *_Follow my lead Naru.*_

Naru blinked but caught on quickly.  "Of course I do."  Serenity twirled to show off what was had in fact become her everyday working garb over the past two years but would look quite exotic to any who lacked even a passing familiarity with modern Earth cultures.  "It's a beautiful mixture of traditional with Terran.  It must have been difficult to get the weavers to produce denim."

"Oh no," Serenity replied with a smile.  "They did not mind at all, although they made quite a few alterations so that it would be softer and they did insist that the colour be a silvery blue for me."  In the corner of her eye she could see the now silent messenger watching them with steadily growing anger.  Her mother, on the other hand, was regarding her as if she was a stranger.

*_Serenity what are you up to?*_

_*What you should have done before now – teaching that woman respect.*_

_*But…*_

_*She does know that you are Selene as well as Serenity does she not?*_

_*I…*_

_*Well if not she should.  A warrior of her power?  If she cannot discern that you are a Divine Star, the only one in this sector of space, then she should be directed back to her elementary magic lessons.  And if she is knowingly showing this much disrespect to a Council Member I will demonstrate just how well I have earned the title of Guardian!  Really Mama!  You should not have allowed her to become this bad!  I do not care how well intentioned she is or how much you dislike standing on ceremony!*_

_*Yes Guardian.* There was a hint of abashed apology and reluctant relief in the telepathic reply for all of the amused emphasis on the princess' title._

Serenity mentally nodded.  Her mother had become accustomed to the almost familial relationship she had with her Lunarian subjects and had forgotten that not all people could be guided with tolerance.  No, some people needed a sharp slap on the wrist and it was time to close the trap.  

Come on little girl, come and take the bait!

"The trews are wonderful and they look very nice with that tunic," Naru continued, giving the messenger no indication of the silent conversation between her queen and princess that she had overheard.  "But are they as durable as Terran jeans?"

"More so, the weavers and tailors had the advantage of Setsuna's help and you know how skilled she is.  She wanted to give me a gift…"

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO NATTERING ABOUT?!"

Hook, line and sinker.  The blonde guardian tossed a silver-gold ponytail over her shoulder and turned to the dark haired woman.  "Excuse me?" she asked with exquisite politeness, "Is there something amiss?"

"Something amiss?!  _Something amiss_!"  The woman appeared apoplectic.  "You are standing there discussing clothes while I am trying to convey the gravity of the situation my people face.  Have you no shame?"

"Have you no manners?" she replied back icily.  "You are behaving boorishly before my Queen and mother and until such a time as you demonstrate basic courtesy I will treat you in the manner such conduct is deserving of, specifically – as an annoyance."

The woman inflated with rage.  "How dare you?!"

"No," Serenity hissed, "How dare _you_?"  With two quick steps she was at the woman's side and a swift sweep of her leg knocked the messenger's legs out from under her as the princess began to lecture.  "You have come to petition a foreign queen for aid, protocol dictates that you do so on your knees.  You are the visible symbol of your people as well as their emissary therefore comport yourself with dignity and treat others with the respect you would wish to receive in turn.  Do not allow your tongue free reign for what is said cannot be unsaid and a verbal misstep could cost you, and almost has lost you, the aid you have come for.  Finally…" Serenity crouched so that she could look at the woman eye to eye.  Ocean blue eyes were filled with equal parts anger, bewilderment and fear.  "Finally you must not ever, ever presume to believe that you could hope to comprehend my queen's motivations and actions.  Yours is a petty soul for all of its power and your outlook is regrettably short-sighted.  How could you ever have come to believe that you could second guess a Star?"

"Who are you?"

"I go by many names," the princess responded tellingly, "But you will know me as the Guardian Serenity… the one whose help you would gain."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_The sky was clear in a rare moment of calm.  Even as he looked, he could see the eternal storms renewing themselves on the horizon.  Soon, the red-tinged sky with its glimpses of the thin planetary rings would disappear behind the war-torn elements yet again.  This was only to be expected on the planet of storms._

_He felt her step up beside him.  Her warmth was almost a tangible thing but, if he were to turn his head, he knew he would find her unbearably untouchable._

_"Another storm is coming."_

_He blinked at that.  She had broken their unspoken rule of silence and for such an obvious statement.  "There always is," he managed to reply after a moment.  His voice rough and unpracticed as if he had not spoken a word in years.  So very apt considering it had been nearly three years since he had spoken any words that counted – those to her._

_"Not like this," she refuted instantly._

_Despite himself, he turned to face her and there she was, all silver and gold and so close and yet so horribly distant.  "What is different now?" he asked, not truly certain if he could bring himself to care.  The agony of her absence from his life had numbed him and these brief moments of contact were only enough to keep the wound raw and never to salve it._

_Eyes as clear as crystal and yet infinitely blue regarded him sorrowfully.  "This storm is an old one that has been renewed.  It brings chaos with it.  Destruction and darkness."_

_He felt himself sneer mirthlessly.  She did not deserve his derision but seeing her, talking to her, grew harder each passing moment.  "So it's a bad storm, big deal.  We'll board up the windows and batten down the hatches. What does it matter?"_

_She was unaffected by his targetless anger.  Her smile was gentle, though sad.  "This time, it is I who will do battle._

_A prescient fear awoke within him and, quick as thought, he snatched at her arm.  "NO!"_

_She vanished from his grasp and cold emptiness filled him as a cloak made of lightless dream-stuff melted between his fingers.  A gaze of darkness transfixed him with a harsh and unyielding will.  His body no longer answered to him, a good thing else he would have assaulted this newcomer.  This god who had everything that he could dream for himself.  This inhuman being who seemed to taunt him with these glimpses of his deepest desires that would never be realised.  This fool who it seemed was about to allow the most precious treasure in the universe to be destroyed._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking at his reflection he saw with eyes and mind.  Displayed in the glass was handsome young man with dark blue eyes and pitch-black hair, set in a pale face with a pointed chin.  Personally he saw nothing particularly outstanding about his appearance.  No, there was nothing exceptional about his exterior, yet even he could not deny that behind that mask of flesh and bone laid a spirit that was anything but mediocre.  It was the spirit of a mage adept, of a warrior extraordinaire, of a mortal trained by an angel… 

Of a man without hope for happiness.

Eyes that had once been vivid blue were now heavy with a sorrow that seemed to leach the colour from them.  Yearning had disfigured what might have been perfect features until they seemed merely pleasant.  His soul was bleeding and, everyday, it became a little more visible.  Everyday it became that much harder to go on without her but he would die before he revealed it.  

Dull indigo eyes hardened until they shone.  It was not joy they reflected but the will behind them created a facsimile that would fool all but the most perceptive examination.  Despair was banished from the weary face and what was left approximated tranquillity.  None needed to know how fragile it was.  

His mask formed of self-discipline and determination complete, he nodded to himself.  No one needed to know the depth of the hollowness he felt.  They didn't need to know, but some knew all the same.  Mina, empath that she was, was impossible to hide from and only this mask of coldness kept her well meaning but ultimately useless interventions at bay.  Kian, Jyp and Alex even knew some of the cause, something he had not been able to avoid.  not when they'd been there and seen as he'd proven himself unable to let go of the past.  And then there was Andrew…

Andrew who knew all there was to know about one Darien Chiba.  Andrew who had seen Darien falling into depression and done everything in his power to keep him from giving in.  Andrew whose twin it was that was at the heart of the matter.

Andrew, one Tranquillity ap Serenity ni Saetan, whom was due to arrive in a few short moments.

The bleakness in Darien's heart lightened, as only the one who had become more than his brother could bring about.  A little over two years before, Darien had 'nobly' released the recuperating Guardian Serenity into her soulmate's keeping and, at first, life had gone on.  He was heartbroken but, though he knew he would never want another, his heart would mend.  Only it never did.  Time worsened the ache, as did the unintentional and unpredictable glimpses of Serenity in Dream.  He began to live for those all-too brief meetings.  What Andrew later told him had been the Dream Lord's gift of gratitude in opening his Realm, became a curse.  He lived for those moments.  More and more time was spent sleeping and less in the waking world.

Until Andrew had intervened.

He had dragged Darien, kicking and screaming, back to life and then started training him so hard that the human mage had no energy to Dream in his rare moments of rest.  It did not address the heart of the matter but even the Lunarian Prince was as helpless as the human there, however it did bring Darien back to himself, mostly.  It also served another purpose, one that Darien, on his own, would not have known to consider.

_"Lisaer?"___

_"Precious."_

_"Lisaen?"___

_ "Possessive form of precious."_

_ "Mithril?"_

_"Silver."___

_"Not quite, it's more of a silver alloy in a manner of speaking, but close enough.  Poliian?"_

_"… Castle?"_

_"Basically, specifically it is keep."_

_"Keep?  But I thought that was revrin…"_

_"That's the verb, poliian is a noun."_

_"Oh…"_

_"So what would the Silver Keep be called in the old tongue?  Come on __Darien__, this is easy.  I've probably already told you before."_

_Darien__'s thoughts raced as he attempted to apply the guides to verbal speech to his limited vocabulary.  He and Andrew were strolling companionably down a peaceful street.  There was no one in sight and the blond Lunarian had decided to snatch the opportunity to inflict more of his convoluted language lessons on his student.  It did not even matter if Darien ran in an attempt to escape it, if he did then his 'teacher' would just follow and continue with the lesson in his mind while he ran.  The blonde had become wearisome in his attention to __Darien__'s wellbeing.  _

_"Umm… __Mithrillea__ Poliian?"_

_Andrew smirked at him and __Darien__ knew he'd gotten it wrong.  "Lady Keep?" the Lunarian repeated mildly._

_Darien__ sighed and racked his memory once more before he tried a second time.  "Mithrilear Poliian?"_

_"You got it!"  Andrew grinned at him proudly, almost as if __Darien__'s progress in the alien language would actually be useful._

_"Why are you so insistent that I learn all of this Andy?" __Darien__ asked before the other man could begin again.  "Why are you so determined to bring me up to your level?  It's not like I'm ever going to need it."  For surely there were better methods to keep an eye on __Darien__._

_"Don't be too certain of that," Andrew replied seriously and __Darien__ blinked.  _

_"I'm a mortal Andy, why would I need the training of a guardian?  Is it because I'm an alpha?"_

_"Not all alphas become guardians, Braud and not all guardians are alphas."  Andrew looked at __Darien__ to see if he understood.  Apparently his incomprehension was visible because the guardian began to elaborate.  "Guardians are different from mages in more than just power.  It's true that we tend to be the most powerful kinds of non-godly beings but we can be surprisingly weak.  There have been guardians who were no stronger than you were before the Darkmoon Crisis.  It's a… characteristic?  Trait?  Change?  It has to do with our souls anyway.  We're also referred to as Stars…"_

_"Guardian Stars," __Darien__ supplied, remembering an old dream.  "So?"_

_"So," Andrew continued, "We're not exactly what are referred to by most as a god but we're not mortal either.  We're sort of in between with a spirit that possesses a spark that is on the verge of igniting us into a true Star."_

_Darien__ considered that.  No doubt the metaphors left out a lot, a good reason for him to hurry up and learn the old tongue, but what he heard seemed to make sense.  "I'm sure it's more complicated than that though."_

_"It can't be explained it can only be experienced," the blond shrugged apologetically.  "You will understand what I mean soon enough."_

_Darien__ frowned.  "Oh?  How?"_

_Andrew blinked and seemed to replay what he said.  "Ah… well you should live long enough to see it happen in me for one…"   Andrew shook off the mantle of introspection that had fallen over him suddenly.  "Anyway, back to why I'm training you.  Simply put in inter-dimensional terms, Braud, you've become a rather valuable commodity.  Do you have any idea how many alphas exist in the universe let alone multi-faceted alphas like you?"_

_Darien did not dignify the question with an answer, causing the blond to pause his diatribe for a moment._

_"Oh…" he said, deflated, "I forgot."_

_"That there's a mortal here?"  __Darien__ enquired archly and Andrew winced.  With a malevolent humour the human continued to feed Andrew's chagrin.  "You forgot that not all of us present are interstellar jetsetters?  That some of us are bound to this one planet by the laws of another's mother?  That those same laws even forbid certain of us from learning about anything not of Earth?"_

_"Okay!  Okay."  Andrew rolled his eyes.  Erase a guy's memory a couple of times and he never lets you forget it!"_

_"Hah, hah."__Darien__ shook his head.  His friend could be such a ham._

_"Anyway," Andrew said after retrieving his foot from his mouth, "Alphas are rare.  There are five among my people and considering the Silver Keep's population that means their about a thousand times more frequent than in most people.  Now, then you have to consider that there are four types and you'll begin to get it."  Andrew looked at him very intently.  "You've drawn more than a little attention to yourself in the Council itself in the last few years.  If it weren't for my mother you'd have petitioners approaching you already."_

_"Oh."  __Darien__ was flabbergasted.  It had never even occurred to him that the news of Earth and him might have spread past the Moon.  It gave him a new appreciation on the necessity of Selene's Law._

_Andrew nodded.  "And that's only taking your warrior status into account.  Thing is Dare, of the four broad classes of alpha adept, you come under at least three if not all four.  You are also a seeker, both magically and mentally.  Isn't that the definition of a clairvoyant?  You are a healer and that's self explanatory."_

_"Not an alpha though!" he objected strongly._

_Andrew smiled slightly.  "Want to bet?  Your problem at the moment is that the planet is sucking your healing energies out."_

_"What?!"___

_"Your bond-planet remember?" Andrew mockingly regurgitated __Darien__'s own words of several years before.  "You claimed her as that for good reason.  You're tied to her.  You give her healing energies and she gives you strength."_

_Darien__ calmed.  After all he had been aware of the practicalities of being an ecopath since his previous lifetime.  It was just a little alarming to be told that, 'the planet is sucking your healing energies out!'_

_Andrew grinned and __Darien__ realised that he had given his friend exactly the reaction that Andrew had been trying for.  The blond, still smirking, continued as if there had been no interruption.  "The only thing I'm not really sure about is how strong you are as a councillor.  I'm referring to the skill of shifting through probabilities and possible futures to find the best course…"  Andrew paused reflexively.  "__Usa__'s__ good at that," he said thoughtfully, "She doesn't even need to think about it anymore."_

_"What about you?" __Darien__ hastily changed interrupted.  He already knew that she was an alpha in each of the four classes Andrew had mentioned but he did not want to dwell on thoughts of her yet again.  There was too much hurt in such thoughts.  _

_"Oh I'm warrior and councillor," Andrew answered, bringing __Darien__ out of his painful thoughts of his unreachable love._

_Darien__ nodded.  He should have figured it out for himself.  "Of course," was all he said._

_Andrew shrugged. "My lady is a seeker… __Usa__ is all four while Luna is a councillor and a seeker while Artemis is a warrior.  Not that that means that Luna should be disregarded as a fighter or Artemis as a councillor.  That is simply where their magical affinities lie."_

_They walked on in silence while __Darien__ digested what he had just been told.  The five guardians of Selene were the five alphas of the Silver Keep.  It was rather startling for __Darien__ when he realised that he was able to put a face to every name._

It was as surprising now as it had been nearly two months ago when that conversation had occurred for Darien to consider just how broad his horizons had become.  Darien shook himself.  He doubted that the Law of Selene would end in his lifetime but the other reason he let Andrew torture him in such a manner remained.  It kept him sane.

It had also prepared him for this.

He had left Serenity in Morpheus' keeping.  It was for him to keep her safe and happy.  Memories of the last night's dream rose again within him and his resolution hardened.

The doorbell rang and Darien abandoned his unseeing regard of the mirror to let his friend in.  Andrew was about to find more than a lesson waiting for him.

And Morpheus would learn that not even the god could escape a lesson of his own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mina collapsed onto the ground, panting with exertion as her transformation faded.  She was now officially dead and so could join Kian and Kip the Jyp in watching the others compete in their little mêlée on the grounds of Raye's temple.  Kian had found himself targeted right at the start by an expedient alliance of all of his opponents.  It was the only way that any of them, with the exception of Darien, Alex or Michelle, could have a hope of surviving a battle against him.  Jyp had been eliminated so early because he had incurred Raye's wrath and had not been prepared for the consequences.

Mina had let herself lose deliberately so she could watch and evaluate the performance of the others and she suspected Kian's defeat had similar causes despite the forces that had been arrayed against him.  Like her, he no doubt took the fighting state of his companions personally.  That was something she appreciated in her fellow team leader.  He was silent, cold, unapproachable and a general stick in the mud but he could get the best out of the three men who followed him so Mina put up with his quirks.  This is what she told herself every time the full contingent of reincarnates worked together since Darien had brought the unknowns back from America with him over two years before.

His ice-blue eyes fixed on her stonily and she looked away quickly, blushing and lecturing herself about keeping her mind on track.  She was nearly twenty years old but the remnants of the blonde ditz remained, or so Raye would say if Mina didn't get her act together.  The young priestess in question was wielding delicate tongues of flame with incredible precision.  It was no wonder Jyp had been so easily outclassed, even fully prepared he would have been hard pressed to match her.

Zack and Lita fought back to back in between the current alliance of Raye on one side of them and Amy and Nick double-teaming them on the other.  Strangely enough, it was not lightning, Lita's elemental affinity, but greenery that was holding the other three at bay.  Between them, Lita and Zack had found common ground with which they could synergise their magic.  It was a delicate and demanding balancing act that made Mina whistle aloud.  By adding that little trick to their repertoire, the pair had increased their fighting value at least threefold.  The only way that two mages could combine their powers to better effect were if they were soul bonded, trait none of them possessed.  Although…

Sometimes, Mina's empathy focused on Lita and it felt a lack of something.  There was no reason whatsoever for the blonde to have any reason t think so, but she could not help but feel the tall brunette was missing something important.  Recently Lita's behaviour had been a little… odd.  She was quieter for one thing and no longer found the time to join Mina guy-watching, something she used to adore.  Even Nick, Mr Maxfield Stanton the third's, blatant admiration of her had drawn no reaction from her and he was a very attractive man in his own right.  For Lita not to respond was very out of character for her.  Mina hoped she was wrong, but, as time went by, the little pieces were adding up to form a very tragic picture.  Lita had been soulbonded.

It would have been in her last life, Mina deduced, or the absence of her bondmate would have left her feeling something closer to Darien's emotional morass – but Mina was not going to attempt that emotional minefield again in this lifetime.  No, Lita's problem was less recent, as in centuries less recent.  There was the tragedy of it.  Whoever it had been, and whatever way they had been bound to her, did not matter.  They were long gone and, though her mind might not remember, her heart and soul did.  They ached and Mina could feel it and do nothing.

"Pity Alex and Michelle couldn't join in," Jyp commented idly as he moved to sprawl next to her on the grass.

"Michelle's recital ran late last night and it was unfair to expect them this early," Mina explained absently, "They'll come around midmorning to lunch though."

"Yeah."  Jyp shrugged.  "But 's the first round that's best 'cos, before then, you don't really have a clue 'bout how much the others've improved compared to you.  'S unpredictable.  But, after that, 's all strategy 'n' that makes my head hurt."

"Thinking makes your head hurt," Mina translated blandly, her eyes still fixed on the battle.  Zack and Lita in their forms of Zoisite and Jupiter were pushing their opponents back.

Kian snorted quietly and Mina was surprised into a quick glance at his face where she caught a brief flicker of amusement that flashed across his features.  Almost embarrassed, for Kian anyway, his eyes went colder as if to compensate.  Jyp grinned at her merrily, having caught the exchange and enjoyed it.

"So what do you think?" the grinning loon asked when Mina looked away from the older man.

"About what?" Mina replied, caught off guard.

Jyp rolled his eyes.  "About them," he said and nodded towards the battling five.

"Oh!"  Mina shook herself and sat up.  For a moment she had thought the blonde joker had meant Kian.  "I was just thinking that we've all come a long way in the last six years.  It's really cool when you think that we had nothing to go by when figuring our abilities out except the instincts instilled by training in another lifetime."

"We could do better," Kian stated flatly.

Mina rolled her eyes at him.  Of course _he_ wouldn't be satisfied.  "Come on!" she groaned, "Considering that we had no reason to even believe in magic at all, we've come an amazing way.  Even Beryl wouldn't've stood a chance if we faced her as we are now."  That was more than a little exaggerated but she felt that it got her point across nicely.

The two men did not.  Their experience with the demented witch was more intimate than hers and she remembered this too late.  Kian's demeanour had frozen over, allowing her to make a stark contrast between the man he had been and the one she had come to know.  Only then could she appreciate how much progress the silver-haired man had made towards healing.  On the other hand, Jyp's eyes had become oddly empty, bereft of the joker's passion for life.  Truly, it was creepy and Mina mentally castigated herself for stirring up such dark memories.

She began to apologise, "Look guys, I'm sorry…"

"Don't," Kian snapped, "Don't you dare make such comparisons.  When you do so, you are being foolishly arrogant and you belittle what we went through in her power.  Even now, all of us combined do not possess the power that woman had in her little finger!"

It was more than she had ever heard Kian say at one time in all the time she'd known him.  She was angry that he would dare lecture her in such a manner, as if she had not faced Beryl down herself.  Still, she was sadder than anything else.  It had been years since Beryl had been destroyed and her fould touch could still be felt by those like Kian and Jyp.

"Darien's stronger now."

Jyp's unequivocal statement startled the woman out of her dark thoughts.  "Huh?"

The emptiness in the blonde man's expression had been filled with something very like awe.  "Darien's stronger than she ever was."

Although Mina believed that to be nothing less than the unadorned truth, past experience had taught her there was more to it than a simple matter of brute strengths.  Besides, the changes in Darein were not something he appreciated the rest of them discussing behind his back and Kian not only knew this but also enforced it implacably.  "Beryl's power was deceptive," she said instead.

"How'd you come up with that?" Jyp enquire mildly.

Mina shrugged.  "A lot of it was just flashy firework stuff that was more bluff than anything else.  Good enough to impress a bunch of green girls and those morons that served her but no real substance."

One of Kian's silver brows rose sceptically.  "Then how do you explain her destroying most of the life in the solar system and knocking civilisation on Earth back by millennia?"

"She had a demon queen helping her."  Even Mina was surprised by her answer.

Jyp snorted convulsively and both of Kian's eyebrows rose almost to his hairline.  "How the Hell did you think _that_ one up?" the former demanded.

Mina bit her lip absently.  She really didn't know how she knew it.  It was the truth thought, she was certain of it.  They had known, back then, that Beryl had had a backer with a lot of clout, it was only now, that she thought about it, the explanation came to her.

Metallia…

She shook the strange thought off.  The name was familiar, if it was a name, but none of her talents included clairvoyance, so she put the thought aside… she might ask Raye about it later though, if only to put some old questions to rest.

"Dunno," she drawled, "But it's true.  Without the demon, Beryl was just another witch, a strong one, but, as you said Jyp, nothing really compared to Darien now.  However, with the demon, she had the power to destroy worlds."

"Have to wonder how you beat her six years ago when you were clueless, when nothing that more powerful and wiser individuals and organisations did all those years ago would work."

Mina laid on her stomach and rested her head on her arms.  "Yeah," she agreed distantly, old memories rising in her thoughts.  "You have to wonder a lot of things.  How were the ten… no, eleven of us sent to the future to be reborn?  Why us?  There had to have been smarter and better people just like you said, Jyp.  How did Darien just know how to use his magic without anything else to catalyse his awakening?  There wasn't, you know, nothing happened to him to make him realise that magic existed.  Not like with me.  Why didn't we find Alex or Michelle when we looked, and trust me, we _did_ look?  And how did that cat save me?  How did it stop my empathy from killing me when those people died right in front of me?"  So many questions.  Would they ever know the answers?

"Cat?"  Jyp blinked.  Even Kian appeared taken aback.

Mina grinned into the distance.  "Yeah, didn't I ever tell you?  I don't know how it started for the two of you, but for me it was that cat… a white cat with such a funny bald spot…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tranquillity ap Serenity ni Saetan, a.k.a. Andrew Furuhata, paused suddenly, as he was hanging his coat on the peg next to Darien's front door.  He could feel reality trembling and there was a great sense of expectation.  He cocked his head, sending out mental feelers to find the origin of the bizarre sensation only to have them reeled back in with no results.  Whatever it might be, it was too vague to pin down.  The Earth was as it had been yesterday and the day before that.  He finished hanging his coat and turned to find his human friend regarding him unreadably.

In the depths of his mind and soul, he felt his sister depart the very Realm on her latest task for their Mother and Mistress.

Darien's indigo eyes darkened to black as they bore into him.

With the silver well of his power, he felt the first metaphorical pebble begin its descent down the mountainside.


	3. 2

OK, as I sort of promised here's 2 before the end of the month… well it's still January anyway.  Chapter 3 is nearly done but if it's not out by the end of February then it probably won't be for months as uni is almost upon me again.  I realise things are dragging in this chapter and I'll do something about it come editing time but for now it stands.  

On another note, if you're curious about what else I've been writing while trying to finish Morpheus, I'm steadily posting some of my unfinished stuff up on my live journal (yes, I succumbed – blame my little sister Val).  So you can go there to read it.  Let me know what you think of it too.  The link is in my bio.

One last thing and I'll leave you in peace – to those who have been patient with me and to those who reviewed this monstrosity so nicely, my sincere thanks.

Heir of Morpheus - Chapter 2

He stood alone on the balcony and stared out, over the city of Tokyo.  Humanity now seemed fully aware as dawn gave way to day.  He had not expected to witness this transition, just as he had not on any of the last thousand dawns but his friend's abrupt departure had left him free to savour the morning.  In a way, it was a very profound sight, as millions of humans began their lives.  It was a sea of vitality that was seeded with bright points of something that a human might term enlightenment.  He would name it awareness and he treasured every pinprick of such that tickled his consciousness.  As he should, for each and every one had been touched by his own Mystery.  He had suffered his mother's reprimand for his actions against Pride in Paris, a more painful event than an outsider would think.  But outsiders did not know of the bond between queen and prince, between Lunarian mother and child.

Between guardian and Divine Star.

It had hurt, more than he cared to admit, and moreso when his twin's anger had been aimed at him.  He had broken the Law and she was the Lawkeeper, so he knew and accepted that he deserved the rebukes.  Still, as the years passed, he wondered if his actions had not been preordained and required in the grand scheme of things.  For, now, he could finally see human spirits that could evolve compatibility with Lunari souls.  It was… heartening.

He had watched the growth of the human spirit for centuries and now, over the past couple of years, that development had accelerated beyond belief.  Some of that was due to his own actions and to the dispersal of the witnesses of Notre Dame across the world.  Some was even due to the presence of the reincarnates.  He had to wonder how much of the recent change was due to the presence of a certain developing Star.

His lips twitched and he turned away from the view to re-enter the apartment.  He locked the door and fetched his coat before returning to the balcony.  He shrugged into his coat and looked out, over Tokyo, again and smiled to himself.

Then, Lunarian prince and Selene's guardian, Traquillity vanished into a beam of brilliant sunlight with a clap of his great wings.  His queen needed to be informed that Elysion had finally taken the first steps towards his metamorphosis into the heir of Morpheus.

Even if the unknowing mortal had no idea that he had done so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_She looked into familiar _midnight___ eyes.  The pale face under a thatch of ebon-black air was a welcome sight and she smiled._

_"Hello Milord."_

_He regarded her solemnly.  "The time is almost upon us."_

_She took no offence at his utter lack of greeting, his news gladdened her far too much for that._

_"You must be careful, Child.  Your path ahead will grow dangerous before you reach the light."_

_Surprised, she spun and gasped.  Enough like the first to be his twin, the newcomer was all pale skin and dark robes.  Only his eyes were different.  Where, in the first, she could see the endless skies in the shadows, in the second she could see naught but black.  But then, she had yet to master the intricacies of time._

_"It is the beginning of the end."_

_A third form, equally male and equally a being of shadow, began to appear from the mists.  By reflex, she met and examined the dark gaze only to gasp in wonder.  Although never had the two met before, she saw the violet in the black._

_She knew__ him!_

_He was…_

_"No!"  _

_A final time, she spun and, for a final time, she found a man of secrets and shadows but in this one, the seed of greatness still slumbered uneasily.  Her longed-for mate yelled again but no sound reached her for the three powers, greater than them both, moved between them.  She reached to push them aside only to have her efforts thwarted._

_Dream stole the beloved face away._

_Time shook his head and whispered, "Almost but not yet."_

_And the third power, familiar and yet unknown, formed the gateway that would take her to her destination.  With a loving smile, Death pushed his daughter through._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was not what he had expected, not one little bit, when he had left Andrew to enter Dream physically.  He had hoped that he could reach Serenity before she left for her mission.  He had hoped that he could convince her that his gut feelings and formless foreseeings were reason enough for her not to leave on this journey.  He had hoped for the opportunity to speak to her one more time.  He had hoped many things.

All in vain.

He swung wildly at the old tree in front of him, one of the thousand or more that surrounded him in the forest he was now in.  His fist passed through the wood without resistance, not even the softest of touches to show that he even existed and he screamed in frustration, "Damn you, Morpheus!  Damn you!  Damn you!  DAMN YOU!  I hope Kaos' agents find you and tear you piece from piece, you self-centred, arrogant, over bearing, idiotic excuse for a god!  Damn your foolishness!"  He fell to his knees and whispered through angry tears, "She'll die if she goes alone.  She can't do it on her own and whatever help you think she already has will not be enough!  She'll be destroyed!"

He could have continued in that vein for far longer than he did, his anger and anxiety were that great, had his solitude not been intruded upon.  However, what excesses he would allow himself in private, the man once called Endymion would not allow them witnessed by any.  Even overcome with that flood of emotions, he sensed the approach of a fair sized group of men and was waiting for them impassively by the time they appeared.  Their arrival had been unexpected but fortuitous in a way.  Darien had been stranded by Morpheus, ignorant of his location or even the world he was in.  these were not the trees of Earth and the glimpse of sky, through the holes in the canopy, was not the azure blue of his home but a golden green instead.  He was lost and the only certainty he had was that Morpheus would not have left him in the midst of enemies.  He would not have risked rousing his mate's ire by doing so.

So he waited, hoping these beings could help him puzzle out where he was.

He did not need to wait long.  Their mounts picked a path through the trees at a relaxed walk while the twelve of them conversed quietly or dozed in the saddle.  They were human, or appeared so, just as their beasts seemed to be no more than well bred horses from Earth.  They were, of a man, tall and broad of shoulder.  Even on foot, Darien would have been wary of challenging one with no more than his physical strength to defend himself.  He probed cautiously at their minds and found no ill will among them, save for the one man who was cursing his steed's uncomfortable saddle, and none of the hidden wells of darkness that all humans of his experience possessed.  Or at least, not in the quantity that he was accustomed to.  Indeed, four or five did have darker selves but those inner demons were known and controlled.  The rest were bright souls that were mortally imperfect but surpassingly fair nonetheless.  It was with even greater surprise that he discovered that not one, but two of the twelve were magically gifted.

One of the two possessed no more than a touch of power but the other's mind burned brightly with the gift of Sight.  So distracted was he by the captain, for that was what the man was or so the strangely familiar insignia on his armour proclaimed, that he was not immediately aware that only the captain returned his attention.  None of the other men so much as glanced towards him as they drew slowly closer.  Their mental overtones indicated that even those who stared directly at him did not see him there.

He was not hiding and, in the simple jeans and grey sweatshirt he had left his apartment in, he did not blend into his surroundings.  Professional soldiers, as these men obviously were in their uniforms and armour, should not have missed his presence.  He was about to hail them when the captain drew even with him and paused, bowing deeply in his saddle as his men's horses slowed to a stop in their puzzlement.

"Good day, Lord Faë," the man said with deep respect in his voice as he straightened.

Darien blinked in sudden bemusement.  The man thought he was one of the mythical faerie?  Or perhaps, in this world, they weren't myths but fact.  It would be no more surprising than common men holding their own small magicks.  He nodded his head in return and glanced at the now wide-eyed men who watched their commander in awe.

The man followed his glance and saw the expressions.  He looked back at Darien with cautious but amused rue.  "This is not Terra, Lord Faë, where every tenth soul has the Sight to see your kind and every thousandth soul can claim a drop of your kind's blood amidst their own.  The number of times your kind have come to Atlant can be counted on one hand.  Your visit is an unexpected honour… there is no crisis that has drawn you here is there?  IS all well in the Faerie lands, Lord?"  His face became creased with worry and, behind him, his men, overhearing his words, began to mutter to each other in fearful undertones.

"No," Darien said immediately, to calm the rising fear.  The last thing he desired was to incite a panic in these men, especially in the only one, it seemed, that could see or hear him.  He thought quickly.  "I am here due to an accident, no more, and I plan to return as soon as I am able.  I did not intend this you see."

The man calmed and absently signalled to him men to quieten but his frown did not smooth away.  "Lord Faë, forgive any insult I may give but, if I may be so bold, you are young amongst your kind, are you not?"

Darien's felt his face freeze and the man took it for offence as he quickly tried to correct his apparent faux pa.  "Forgive me, Lord!  I truly did not mean offence!"

Forcing himself to speak coldly to support that impression, Darien demanded, "Such a question is distasteful and it is none of your concern."  The man believed him to be a young elven lord in trouble, fair enough, if it helped Darien get closer to figuring out what Morpheus had done with him, then he could handle that.  "It is enough that your assistance is required."  If he were a powerful faë youth, he would find his situation shaming and degrading, would he not?  And, no doubt, he would behave more imperiously to make up for that.  "Now where am I, mortal?"  He used Morpheus' sneer on that 'mortal', the one that had made Darien aware of just how large a gulf there was between them.  Apparently it worked on the captain in a similar manner.

"You are on Atlant, Lord, and I am captain Himura of the Atlanti Imperial Guard.  If it pleases you, his Highness, the High Lord Tristain, a man of faë descent, is currently attending the summit at the capital.  I could escort you to him as I cannot think of another more suitable to aid you."

Darien nodded, in a daze.  He knew that name.

He barely noticed Captain Himura command one of his men to dismount and remove his gear from his horse.  Nor did being presented with the horse restrained only by a rope bridle break him from his stupor.

"All of the iron has been removed, Lord," the rider said to the empty air next to Darien, "Should you will it, he can carry you, Lord."

Darien just nodded again, vaulting onto the bareback as Himura relayed his acceptance to the soldier.  The other was pulled up behind another rider and the company began moving once more, only, this time, all were awake and uncomfortably aware of their invisible companion.

Darien said nothing and nor did anyone else as the day proceeded.  An tense silence reigned that none of the riders seemed able to break.  The men's easy camaraderie of earlier was now lost, its return inhibited by the interloper in their midst.  The captain looked, several times, back to the rider only he could see but could think of nothing that he could say to break the forbidding aura his unnamed guest had drawn about himself like a cloak.  And Darien, his mind was mired in the dreadful realisation of what Morpheus had done to him.

Several hours later, they ascended a ridge and paused to gaze at the wondrous, sprawling city below them.  Himura dared a proud smile.  "Welcome to our planet's capital, Lord Faë, welcome to AtlantiPolis."

Darien looked out over the city with its glorious spires and sparkling polished stone and his heart fell.

Morpheus had sent him over ten thousand years into the past.

Atlantis.  He was in the Gods-damned city of Atlantis!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fourteen-year-old Mina Aino dashed along the footpath as if all the furies of Hell were chasing her.  The red ribbon that held back her long golden hair fluttered gaily in direct contradiction with the mood of the normally bouncy blonde.  It was the third time this week that she had overslept and she could not, for the life of her, explain why.  Not to herself, her parents or the temperamental teacher that was undoubtedly awaiting her belated arrival in class with something less than patience.

If she had had the breath to grumble about the unfairness of parents, teachers and adults in general then she might have done so.  Only might though, because, unlike on other days, the girl was not her boisterous self.  No, whatever was trapping her in slumber each night was also leeching her good humour from her and leaving only a deep, nameless dread in its place.  Something was coming.  Something was about to happen.  Something was about to change her world forever and she could not make herself believe that it was because the hunky arcade guy was about to confess his love for her.

In the distance, the noise of Tokyo swelled to a crescendo.  Morning traffic, distant school bells and millions of voices combined into a symphony that characterised Japan's greatest metropolis.  For a moment the seemingly abrupt roar of life in Tokyo deafened the girl.  She reeled with the force of it but, as suddenly as it began, the din vanished, leaving an aching silence in its wake.  Strangely bereft, her faculties scrambled for order and found anchor in the appearance of a cat.

She fixed her gaze on the small feline as if her life depended on it and, some small part of her that her dreams had stirred knew that it did.  A small, white cat with a watchful, azure stare held the fate of all she held dear.  Unconsciously, she stepped towards it and, in her dislocated state of mind, saw nothing unusual when the apparently stray cat did not retreat.  It displayed absolutely none of the fear any normal feral should.

Her heart beat pounded loudly in her ears as those knowing orbs bored into hers.  For a eternity, she was transfixed, mesmerised and bespelled, then, a car horn startled her.  She blinked, but the cat was gone without a trace, vanishing as if it has never existed.  Mina blinked again and shook herself.  Her sleep difficulties were obviously bleeding over into her waking hours.

The car horn sounded again and another answered but the teen paid them no mind.  If she had been late before, now she bordered on truant.  Once more, she shook her head and, if her first few steps were unwontedly hesitant, no one was near to remark upon it.  No, the only person there to wonder at her strange behaviour of the past few minutes was Mina herself.

Her body finally began to pick to react and her movements became more natural.  As her pace began to pick up, finally awareness of her lack of punctuality setting in, the car horns screamed again and a rush of heated air beat at her back.  She stumbled, fighting not to fall to her knees, and turned unconsciously.  Behind her, where the street had once been, there was just a river of molten black slag.

The ground trembled and she did fall then.  The cement foot path buckled and cracked with a bone chilling crunch.  She scrambled backwards, watching with terror the superheated liquid that had once been bitumen as if flowed along the cracks that radiated out from the road.  Even from several metres distant, she could feel the waves of searing heat sent off by the viscous black substance and she scrambled frantically to keep that distance.

The cars that, minutes before she believed had been honking their protests at the congestion, were now puddles of colour amidst the greater pool of black that had been the road.  There were no signs of the drivers.  If there had been passengers in any of the vehicles then they, too, had vanished.  Mina's eyes drank in the scene with a horrible fascination, even as she tried to escape it.

The freakish devastation and the sinister absence of any other witnesses incited a fear that near choked her.  Lent speed by sheer terror, she stumbled to her feet and ran.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Serenity tumbled through the gateway out of Dream ungracefully.  She mantled her wings to regain her balance.  All in all, it wasn't her best entrance but, in the wake of her first face to face meeting with her father, she couldn't bring herself to regret taking that shortcut through Morpheus' Realm.  She smiled softly as she straightened, he was just as she had pictured, tall and dark and so wonderfully deep.  Just like Mamoru, talk about girls choosing lovers that were similar to their fathers.  Memory of her human soulmat caused her smile to fad.  What had he been trying to tell her before they'd been so abruptly separated?

The shock of an attack threw all such considerations completely from her mind.  Solely by reflex, her shields snapped up and another attack shattered against them.  Through her own considerable raw strength, she reached out blindly with her power.  Coldly, she felt it meet the perpetrators of the ambush and, just as dispassionately, she examined them and determined her course of action.  She faintly heard the one calling herself Starfighter approaching her location but, by the time the other was close enough to be of any assistance or hindrance, Serenity had ruthlessly disarmed and restrained them.  The two who had acted so unwisely dangled, suspended in midair by unyielding bonds of silver.

The brunette mage materialised in an overly flashy burst of power, concern evident on her face.  Serenity did not fool herself into even considering that it was directed towards her.  In an irritated tone of voice, she enquired, quasi-sweetly, "These are friends of yours, I may presume, Starfighter?"

If there was one thing that Starfighter had learned in their short acquaintance, it was exactly how painful it could be to deal with Selene's Guardian when she was disgusted with something or someone but felt duty-bound to help them, regardless.  The mage still seemed clueless as to the extent she was outclassed, but the manner in which she the Lunari princess had expressed her displeasure at times had impressed upon Starfighter a modicum of restraint.  Now, it seemed, the woman wished to spare her friends the same lessons.  As Serenity did not really enjoy either rebuking children or bullying those weaker than herself, she silently encouraged those efforts.

"Your Highness, my team-mates, Starmaker and Starhealer.  While I have been absent, they have born the brunt of Galaxia's offensive.  Your arrival startled them and they mistook you for one o the enemy.  On their behalf, I apologise and swear it will not happen again."

The two whom she had captured so easily, did not echo their friend's statement.  That might have been due to them not thinking any such thing but the Guardian thought it might be because she'd stolen their ability to speak.  Whether their red faces were due to anger, embarrassment or simply from being held upside down for too long, Serenity  let them down gently.  Her own ire had cooled before it had truly been roused and she saw no purpose in shaming any of her hosts further than she already had.

"Your gracious apology is accepted," she told them courteously, instead.  Neither of the two objected, though in the case of the blonde, Starhealer she recalled, it looked to be a close call.  "Now shall you take me to your princess?  Or whoever is in command so that I can get a complete briefing of the current situation."  

Starfighter nodded immediately but something in her friends' faces gave her pause.  Serenity did not need that small clue.  The resounding grief from the minds of two powerful mages nearly drove her to her knees, so unexpected it was.  Starfighter frowned when the Guardian stumbled, not aware of the tragedy or how Serenity had been affected, only aware that something was wrong.  Serenity recovered and watched silently, Starhealer and Starmaker communed with their eyes she remained unwilling to intrude on what should be a private moment.  If she could, she would have left them to inform Starfighter in true privacy.  As it was, she could only afford to spare them a few moments.

"Sister, her Highness was murdered three days ago."

Three days, that would have been just after Starfighter had left Kinmoku.  The wait on the moon for Serenity's arrival would have made no difference, a very small mercy in the wake of the sorrow she could sense.

Starfighter's face was bloodless, drained by the shock of the news.  "That's not possible," she denied hoarsely, "How could she be dead?"

The two exchanged another of those speaking glances.  "Galaxia came for her.  She paid no mind to any other, her only goal was Kakyuu."

Starmaker nodded slightly.  She wished to hurt us.  To demoralise us.  She was here before we knew it and gone again before we could react."

Starfighter's eyes became more than a little wild.  Serenity watched the woman closely.  She hoped she was wrong but she did not think Starfighter was strong enough to take this setback.  The loss of the liege so obviously close to her appeared to be unbalancing her.  Serenity could feel the emotional chaos the mage was projecting.  It was understandable but dangerous.

"How could you…"  Starfighter's eyes narrowed furiously as she fixed them on her two friends.

Serenity quietly laid her hand on the brunette's shoulder.  Starfighter began to turn and aim her grieving wrath upon the Guardian, Serenity could literally see the line of thought as it formed, but the Lunarian had already acted.  Cool, silvery tendrils of calming comfort insinuated themselves into Starfighter's mind.  For all her strength, Starfighter was not a telepath and so she did not sense Serenity's interference.  She calmed and her thought processes became rational once more.  The grief, however, remained and the processes of grieving would still need to be worked through.

"You have my condolences," Serenity said into the silence when Starfighter's words had trailed off into nothing.  There was another flare of anger in Starfighter at what the mage perceived to be Serenity's insensitivity but the woman, herself, quelled it before it spawned action.  Serenity removed her hand and broke the deeper link while keeping her mind's eye open to the flavours of all three women's mental overtones.  

"I am sorry," she repeated her previous sentiments, "But I would ask that you inform me of the situation so that I may act whilst you mourn."

All three reacted identically with offence.  Starhealer's pale eyes flared with outrage.  "You think we are so foolish as to allow ourselves to be incapacitated even by such a tragedy?"

Serenity smiled gently, letting them see her chagrin.  "That was not what I intended," she explained quickly, "I work alone, simply that, and, whilst I occupy the enemy, you and yours may hold the wake.  I suspect you have not been given opportunity to do so before this."

"Wouldn't it be more logical if we were to combine our efforts?  Use strength in numbers, rather than you acting on your own?  The betrayer was the foremost warrior in service to the Council, or so Kakyuu told me," Starmaker enquired unemotionally, her tone at odds with the sharp spike of sorrow Serenity felt when the other mentioned the late princess.

The Lunarian considered the suggestion carefully, taking a moment to gaze out, over the ravaged landscape.  Her father's portal out of Dream had left her in what once must have been the courtyard of the palace on Kinmoku.  There was nothing left to show this though, only the rubble of what would have been the palace itself and the regrets of the survivors.  She sent out probes, scouting her surroundings only to confirm what she had already suspected – the four of them were the only living beings within a league in any direction.  No wonder Starhealer and Starmaker  had believed her to be the enemy and, yet, Starfighter had not been surprised to see it thus.  Serenity became a little more understanding of the woman's rudeness towards her mother.  It was not excusable but it was understandable.  These people had lost so much already to the menace Galaxia had become, would it be right of her to increase their burden?

Galaxia was powerful, true, perhaps even moreso than Serenity in her youth, but Serenity's purpose was not so much to put an end to Galaxia's rampage as it was to divert it back to the barren sectors.  That was something that should be within her capabilities.   She redirected her reconnaissance probes away from Kinmoku and into the surrounding starlanes.  She found traces of several powerful beings, not least the three day old trail of Galaxia herself, but for the lesser presences there was no evidence of activity more recent than two days.

"Galaxia was accompanied?" she asked the three, looking back at them calmly.

Starhealer's sudden and fierce, almost feal, smile caught her by surprise, until she heard the platinum blonde's response.  "She _was_."

Serenity nodded in understanding as Starfighter lit up with grim satisfaction.  It seemed whatever allies the once-guardian had garnered had paid the price for their association with Kakyuu's murderer.  This meant that, of all the traces Serenity had discerned, she needed only to concern herself with Galaxia's.  Her decision made, she regarded the three solemnly.  "I will face her alone," she informed them.  When each looked to argue, she held her hand up for silence.  "Alone," she repeated implacably.  "Your assistance is appreciated but not required.  See to your dead and begin healing your world.  I will return to aid you but my task make take some time.  Do not wait for me."

Starhealer and Starmaker were examining her dubiously but said nothing despite their doubt.  Starfighter was reluctant but accepted her at her word, even though she, herself, would prefer to accompany her.

Courteously, they waited for her to leave before doing so themselves.  The Guardian approved the evidence of manners that Starfighter had not shown in the Silver Keep.  She smiled to herself as she modified the illusion she wore to one of greater power and more detail.  She knew they saw a glimpse of as much of her true appearance as their limited senses could perceive but it did not concern her – she wore the original illusion not to hide but to blend in with her people.  When she was finished, she stood before them in white boots, a tri-layered miniskirt and white bodice.  Her wings remained unaffected, but otherwise she appeared as a human female.  It would take Galaxia some time to see through to the Guardian beneath.

"Who _are you?" Starhealer demanded, her pale eyes wide as she stared at the Lunarian. _

Serenity smiled at them kindly.  She could feel their surprise and curiosity as well as their dissolving doubt in her abilities.  "I was introduced to Starfighter as the daughter and Guardian of Selene, Princess Serenity.  If you wish, you may call me Usagi."  She glanced down at the puffy pink sleeves of her seeming.  Saccharine but they would serve her purpose.  She looked up again and grinned at them cheekily before spreading her wings wide.  "I think, however," she added in amusement, "That I will have Galaxia know me as…"  Her grin became a fond smile as she remembered the last time she had worn a similar costume.  "Sailor Moon… Eternal Sailor Moon."

She nodded to herself and the three mages.  Then her wings came down and her power was released as she sped towards Galaxia's most recent location.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Darien stared out of the window blankly.  The vista was one of unalloyed magnificence and yet it held not even a sliver of his attention.  It couldn't, not when he was pummelling his memory, trying to force the misty and vague recollections of his past life into some semblance of sense which would be of some use to him.  It was difficult, the fragmented memories intractable and intangible things, even after more than ten years of awareness of their existence, they gave him no more information than they ever had.

In the hour since he had begun the, almost futile, exercise, he had learned no more from his previous lifetime than he had before and that was unacceptable.  He was mired in the distant past, on a planet that no longer existed in his time and about to meet Lord Tristan within the hour.  An hour that he resented losing but could not argue.  

Nor could Darien afford ignorance, not when it was his own past that he risked meddling with.  High Lord Tristan, elder brother of the Terran king and the man who would teach one prince Endymion everything he would need to know about magic.

Tristan nic Terra, protector of the Imperium Silver Crystal.

Tristan who was standing behind him.

Darien kept his face composed as he turned, showing none of the surprise that he felt when he had not detected the other man's presence until he had seen his reflection in the glass window.  He turned calmly and nodded shallowly.  A faë no matter how lowly would still think himself above a human so although he must be courteous none of the deference that he would have once felt must come through.  That was difficult when his first sight of the man roused a forgotten but ingrained deference in him.  While Darien was wrestling with that, the lord's very familiar features registered and they should have been familiar.  Last lifetime or no, for, barring the strangely alien cast, Tristain's face was almost the mirror of Darien's own.  Coincidence or not, significant or not, the shock unbalanced Darien.  He stepped back unwittingly.  It was an unconscious reaction that, combined with the unexpected reverence he held for the man, proved his undoing.

_*Well, what have we here?  As I was told, of the blood and yet not…  Kin despite yourself, hmm?*  _

The voice, clear and crisp, was directly in his mind.  His charade had been rendered a failure before it was truly tested, the lord had breached his shields without effort.  Darien hurried to expel the other's presence but it was too late.  Tristain had access, something he took ruthless advantage of, and he reft Darien from his control of himself, all the while keeping up a running commentary aloud.

"Oh yes, more than a drop of faë blood here, almost half.  Surprising that, and you have no clue…"

Darien glared, dark eyes burning with anger at the invasion but it was directed as much at him himself as Tristain.  He had not even considered that the brother of a king would not give him a chance to state his case before acting to coerce the truth from him and so was woefully unprepared.  Now he had to face consequences of his laxness but he would not do so gracefully.  Tristain's power, which was actually less than his own, ensnared him helplessly, wielded as it was by an iron will and exquisite skill that shrugged his continued struggles aside with little effort.

"Oho!  Dealings with the gods, I see!  And with the Lord of Dream, himself!  And, yet, more that you do not know.  Child of the future.  Child of destiny, child of Earth… Child of mine!"

Through his fierce and focussed opposition of his helplessness, Darien heard the man's words and stilled.  Power and body might be paralysed but mind was not.  What the Hell was the old man going on about?  His father was… had been Eowyn nic Terra, Tristain's younger and legitimate half-brother.  Perhaps he meant spiritual child, which Darien could see.  Tristain had basically raised him while matters of State had distracted the king.  That explained one thing and the future remark was obvious as was Earth, but destiny?  Was his role in Usagi's ascension to godhood preordained?

"So close and yet so far.  You cannot see what is before your eyes, blinded as you are by self-deception."

What couldn't he see?  Darien was confident that he was than moderately self-aware.  He knew his weaknesses and strengths.  Andrew had refined the training Tristain had begun.  Like an adept, a prince could not allow facets of his mind go unrecognised and unconfronted lest they lead him to abuse of his power.

"Lost in time. Lost in space.  Lost in reality.  Such a child to have forgotten all I taught you of the Realms."

Darien silently challenged his uncle to recall everything that happened to him in two lifetimes with over ten millennia and a rebirth in between.  Besides, he wasn't lost.  He was on the damned planet of Atlant sometime around half a century before Beryl turned it into the asteroid belt and, if he wasn't mistaken, he was trapped between Underhill and the Realm that Earth existed in, thus influenced by Will, Awareness and Imagination, as Usagi would classify the dimensions, and the four that Earth knew.  Which was why he was visible only to those with the sight to view beyond the four accepted dimensions and why he could not touch anything with even a hint of iron in its makeup.  He must have appeared in the ironwood forest that was cultivated by the Atlantians for building material.  It was a distasteful practice to the faë but very few of them visited this Realm anywhere other than Terra and, even then, only rarely.  Endymion never did understand why Tristain had harped so that he learned of the faë domain as well as the one he was supposedly fated to rule.

"But there is strength here.  You have overcome much so why have you stopped now?  Your goal is within reach.  The lady is won and waiting for you."

What the Hell did he know anyway?  Endymion managed to clench his fists.  His uncle had no bloody idea what the situation with Usagi was about.  Telepath or not, son of an elven seer or not, Tristain had obviously missed the fact that Serenity was Morpheus' bloody soul mate! 

"Why do you think that, I wonder…"

For a moment, the not-so-young prince fumbled for a reason.  He could not actually remember ever being _told… then he recalled his first meeting with the old god.  Images of gold, pure and deep, power rose in his mind along with knowledge born of his own prescience.  There could not be a second such power and every interaction between the god and the Guardian had born out his conclusion._

"A conclusion based on a false assumption."

If, in his uncle's power, Endymion was still, his uncle's words made him a statue of flash.  Tristain smiled at him, affectionately malicious towards a favoured student that still could not see the truth laid out before him.

"Is it not obvious?  The clues are all there, my child.  As I am to you, so Morpheus is to Elysion."

The god's nephew?

"Little fool!  Woefully, wilfully blind."  Tristain shook his head in cool rebuke.

The implacable will that held Endymion released him and the adept staggered at the unexpectedness of it.  Belatedly, crimson-flecked gold roused but the prince's mind was too unbalanced to understand what it Saw.

"You look much as you will.  Strange that two lifetimes have given you the same features in both."

Endymion regarded the other man, suspicious of the apparent change in subject..  Descended as he was, as they both were, from creatures who existed equally in Will, Imagination and Awareness, self image was very powerful.  Unconsciously perhaps, but inevitably, his self-perception had been impressed upon his reality, though moulded by his environment.  In a world of humans, he had become one… except that he hadn't  From the moment he had awakened into his past self's magick, modern Earth's expectations had ceased to have power over him.  More believable than ever was his distance from modern humans and his attraction to those who were not.  He wondered, wistfully, if he would have had more chance with Usagi had she known this.  Mortal was still mortal, however, so he thought not.  His mind gravitated back to the Guardian, as was inevitable, and his fears returned, full force.  It was ten thousand years before the crisis would come, yet, he knew well that time, too, could be bent to a powerful will.

Endymion need to act before his nameless dread was realised.  He had thought  Morpheus would listen but now he doubted.  The Star's actions were careless and inexcusable.

"Perhaps," Tristain suggested as he watched his nephew, "You should find the being destined to be at her side."

Morpheus?

An indigo gaze, clear and pitiless, bore into his own and willed him to think beyond his preconceptions.

No Morpheus then.  Tristain had virtually said as much, in the true enigmatic fashion of the faë, previously.  What was Endymion to Tristain?  Student, nephew, possibly even son in both heart and body considering the amount of faë blood he had evinced and his royal father's suspicious lack of other issue…

Heir.

An approving smile bent the other's lips and Endymion stared as comprehension dawned.

An heir… Morpheus' heir.

"Where do I find him?"  It was the first time he had spoken since the unorthodox conversation had begun.  Indeed, his voice was almost rough from the suddenness of it but Endymion could care less at what it would reveal to those present to hear.  There was only Tristain here and his mind had been laid bare before the lord.

Tristain shrugged, a strangely human gesture in the predominantly nonhuman man.  "Within?"  Endymion did not appreciate the answer and glared.  Tristain sighed.  "Seeking him in the now would be in vain for his power is bound and constrained.  No help for your self-appointed task will be found within this Realm, seek in another for your love's salvation.  For your own dilemma, I believe that I have served you as well as I am able.  All that you need, you already possess."

Endymion frowned at his mentor in perplexity.  "I do not understand."

_*Remember, Endymion, remember.*_

He already did.  He stared at the man who had cleared the cobwebs from his past, unnoticed, as he had explored Endymion's mind.  With crystal clarity, he could remember his seventy years as Terra's heir, from birth to his death in the final conflagration of the Fall.  He remembered each and every skill that Tristain had imparted to him as clearly as he recalled those taught by Andrew.  Two separate teachers but one basic lesson – how to traverse the Realms.

His course of action was clear now and the need to be gone was almost overwhelming but there was still much to be said to his old teacher.  Gratitude and relief to be expressed, concern to be explained… but there was no _time._  Even now, the dread within him grew darker and more appalling and he could not countenance the fruition of the half-born prophecy. 

He could _not!_

All of the impatience and anxiety, forgotten under the onslaught of both Tristain's invasion and the transformation from Darien into Endymion, clamoured for attention.  All he could do was hope that his uncle understood when, without ceremony, he slipped from his uncle's sight.  He did so with a lessened weight upon his heart though, for his last glimpse of his uncle showed that the man knew and understood everything.  The normally unforgivable breach of etiquette would be excused and illicitly gained knowledge would not be used immorally.  

In twenty years time, Tristain nic Terra would leave the Imperial Silver Crystal in his heir's hands and walk knowingly to his death as one of the first casualties to fall to Beryl.  The future would not change and one reincarnated, half-faë warrior mage would meet and save the Guardian of Selene.

 Endymion made his way back to Dream, the first leg in his quest to seek out the mysterious heir on whom his hopes rested.  


	4. 3

Remember, it is unedited, unwieldy and generally unimpressive. Comments are always welcome if they are designed to help fix that sad state of affairs. Henceforth, will probably just be posting the bits on livejournal until the fic's finished.

Chapter three of the Heir of Morpheus

Mina spent the next three weeks after her bizarre encounter in a daze. Her behaviour was remarkable, even to those who thought of her as a dizzy blonde, but those that noticed were soon distracted by other events. The atmosphere in Tokyo was tense. Inexplicable destruction was everywhere and it was becoming more and more dangerous to go out at night. Mina knew this, just as she knew of the increasing number of missing persons. She knew of the strange epidemic of weakness that was overworking all of the health works in the city. For all of her distraction, Mina could not help but know of many things that she would much have preferred to remain oblivious to. She could literally feel the tension in the people around her. The fear of her classmates was like a blow to her every morning. Pain and grief was like a flail and she changed her habits so that she no longer walked within a block of any hospital.

Mina knew that Tokyo was in trouble, how could she not? Those same troubles were being engraved into her psyche emotion by terrible emotion. Between that and her ever more disturbing dreams, the blond teen found very little in the way of true rest. If only she could remember what it was that she dreamed, she knew both dilemmas would resolve themselves and she would be able to sleep at last.

Needless to say, this did not make for an attentative Mina Aino during the interschool debate tournament. Between the giggling group of girls behind her, each nursing a serious crush on some poor, unnamed soul, the twins in front of her, both anxious over a relative hurt two days before and the girl at her side who was radiating fear for a friend that had not shown up that day, Mina felt like she was drowning and she was too tired to struggle to stay afloat. She had nodded off three times already and, three times, her inexplicable sensitivity to the emotional states that surrounded her was dulled as that intangible _something_ welled up from her unconscious mind. If only she could see it clearly...

"... Schools competition! Welcome!"

She was startled awake again by the end of the principal's opening speech. She joined in the obligatory applause only half-heartedly before lapsing back into reverie. Weariness soon converted day dreams to a light doze haunted by restless images as, in the background, the voice of the speaker on the visiting Crossroads Junior High debate team began her introduction.

Mina's sleep became deeper and the dream fragments more entire and more fearsome. Her heartbeat began to rise as even unconsciousness could not constrain her increasing anxiety. Memories, clear ones now, of the incident she had tried so hard to forget, crowded out the intangible ghosts. She remembered how the ground had trembled beneath her... she remembered how the air had been so heavy and still... she remember... fear.

The screams were what woke her. For a moment, she thought the scream was her own, embarrassing but not entirely surprising. Then, her surroundings truly registered and she realised that it was not she who had cried out but instead the speaker. It was the girl, short and delicate with dark hair, on the Crossroads debate team who was looking out over the audience with an expression of absolute terror. Frowning, Mina stood and twisted around. Her eyes widened as she abruptly understood exactly what was panicking the girl and decided that Anni, or whatever her name was, had the right idea. Her screams joined the visitors and then all Hell broke loose.

This broke everyone else from their shocked stillness and soon the entire room was filled with hysteria for monsters roamed the halls. The majority of the students headed towards the main doors in a mass exodus as they fought each other to escape. Some, like the girl from Crossroads on the stage, seemed frozen by their terror and others, like Mina, found themselves the focus of five horrors.

The girls who had bombarded her with their emotions were gone and Mina was left alone to face the stuff of her nightmares. It was evil in a physical forma and she shrank back as it approached her. Her eyes saw something with a feminine shape, only larger than any human female could be, but she did not question that, whatever it was, it was evil.

The blond stumbled into the next row of chairs as she backed away from it. Her fear was almost choking her as it used her distraction to reach for her with arms fouled by filth. Flashbacks to three weeks before pressed at her mind while the terror of those few remaining to watch the creature stalk her pressed, amalgamated and exploded with her own.

She panicked and this time the scream she loosed was not one of simple fright but that of heart-stopping horror. She screamed and, with a part of her that had not fully awakened, pushed. Even behind clenched eyelids, flashes of bright light could be seen and, when against all expectation nothing happened to her, Mina opened her eyes to see the monster's limbs in ruins. Streamers of golden light flailed around Mina and the monster, never once touching the girl but inflicting deadly harm upon her tormentor with even the lightest of brushes. The monster struggled to regroup, mouth opening to shoot a flood of viscous fluid at Mina. In reflex, Mina threw her arms up to block the tide and two of the streamers of light, echoing her posture, crossed in front of her protectively. The fluid impacted against the light and dissolved into nothing.

Seemingly saved from certain death yet again, Mina lowered her arms and regarded the streamers in shock. A disbelieving numbness settled over her as the glimmering of comprehension began to dawn in her mind. They came from her, from that strange part of her that was _pushing_. But, as that numbness settled over her and the fear faded, so too did the streamers of light, leaving her defenceless against the monster. It loomed over her but the streamers did not reappear. She stared up at it as it shuffled closer, it was heavily damaged by the streamers, unbalanced and unsteady. Its only real weapon remaining seemed to be whatever the fluid was that it shot from its mouth. Really it wasn't all that frightening anymore.

However, that did not mean it was not still capable of hurting her and so she scrambled away from it. This time fear did not cloud her mind. Or rather, it did, but it was not hers. Mentally, Mina fumbled to shield herself from the emotions of the others that still bombarded her. Now that she was free of her own debilitating terror, she did not want that of another to weigh her down. It came to her, suddenly, with a soundless click.

For the first time in three weeks her mind was entirely her own. There were no outside forces pressuring her in anyway and, if she had been alone and unthreatened, she would have celebrated the lucidity of thought that came with the relief. The monster continued to bear down on her.

With a renewed clarity of mind, Mina regarded the monster. She searched for that mysterious part of her and then, clumsily, she pushed. The streamer of light that shot towards the monster was not as elegant or graceful as the others had been and it was more of a blob than a streamer but it did prove something to Mina. She made them.

That streamer did little to no damage to the monster, as did the next and the next after that. However, each time, Mina gained a little more control and dexterity and they held more and more of the deadly grace of the originals.

The fifth was a streamer that extended from her hand to and through the monster. Unconsciously she actually grasped the streamer and yanked. The streamer flayed across the monster like a bright and magical whip. Mina had no experience with whips and it seemed to her that, whatever the streamer was, it would slip from her grasp if she was not careful. So she looped the end around her fingers more securely.

That was not how a whip was held, they had a handle she recalled. Perhaps it was more like the magic lasso from the Wonder Woman cartoon, only it was better than just a rope, cooler too… it was a chain with brilliant golden links, like those of her favourite necklace and, like the streamers, the chain would actually cut through what a rope could only tie up.

She raised her arm and brought it down, the line of gold following the path she had directed and it sliced through the monster with contemptuous ease. Even as she willed the streamer to coil in her hands, the monster disintegrated. Mina stared at the spot it had been blankly for a moment before looking down to what she held. It was just as she had imagined it, softly glowing golden links that she just knew would be unbreakable for as long as she willed it so, like little interconnected hearts. It was real and warm against her fingers. The glow was more orange than gold but Mina found that she didn't really care. Somehow, she'd _made_ this, simple from her imagination and it felt good. Despite having almost been killed, Mina felt better than she had in ages. This was a part of what had been haunting her and, in mastering it, she had gained some relief from her tormenting subconscious. Between that and the blessed peace in her mind, how could she not feel good?

And, with that thought, the clumsy psychic shield she had made failed and once again she was assailed by the fear of others. There weren't as many this time, only one in fact and, as Mina struggled to rebuild the walls that would grant her peace of mind, she turned to look for the source of the terror/horror/shock/disbelief. In an effort to protect herself from the barrage, Mina finally recreated her shields as, across the expanse of the auditorium, blue eyes met blue and Mina and the girl from the Crossroads debate team caught each other's gaze. They held each other's eyes for an endless second. Then, yet again, Mina's unsteady shielding fell beneath a sharp spear of fear and… curiosity. When she turned her attention outwards again, the girl was gone and Mina was left alone in the room.

There were still other monsters and fairly near, which meant that Mina could not collapse as she greatly desired to. Besides, if nothing else, the past five minute had shown her just how shaky her control over these new abilities really was. She was definitely going to have to practice.

Unsure of what else to do, she stuffed her still glowing length of chain into her bag and headed for the side door. Hopefully she could get away without being noticed by teachers or monsters alike. Still, it was unlikely that school was going to go on as normal now. Mina figured that, this time, even her form teacher was going to accept monster attacks as an excuse for truancy.

As she slipped from the school grounds, Mina finally remembered what the girl's name had been introduced as.

Amy… Amy Mizuno.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

_There were no illusions of Jupiter in its prime. No towering trees or magnificent storms to create a sense of wonder. There was only darkness. He caught the faintest hint of her silver at the edges of his senses but, no sooner did he feel her than she was gone and he was alone. Again._

_Tempted though he was to pursue her, he knew well that it would be a futile chase. His speed was as nothing compared to that of the winged Guardian. Even if, by some miracle, he did gain on her, it would be to no purpose. Well did he know her sense of duty for, indeed, it was akin to his own. She would not turn aside from her course unless his arguments were flawless. To sway her would require a subtler course, hence he must trust to her skills to keep her whole while he sought out the strength that would be her saviour._

_Of course, the start of his quest was hampered by ignorance, thus his return to a Realm whose lord was more like to hinder him with puzzles than to aide him with blunt truths. The darkness around him was stifling, much like his lack of knowledge. This was not how he remembered Dream as being. Then, from nowhere and everywhere, came three voices, mocking him._

_"Perhaps then, you are recalling it incorrectly."_

_"Perhaps he no longer understands what he does not remember."_

_"Perhaps he never did."_

_"That makes no sense whatsoever!" he shouted into the darkness._

_"This is the one? Is he worthy?"_

_"He has not yet been tested."_

_That was Morpheus, he was certain of it. No other being was guaranteed to burrow beneath his skin with but a few innocuous words. The other two, then, would most likely be Morpheus' two companions that had interfered before when he sought to warn the one he had then thought to be her soul mate. He growled, aggrieved by the Dream-lord's never ending games. "I don't have time for this! _She_ doesn't have time for this! She faces worse than death and she will not win, not alone. If you care for her at all, Morpheus, help me!"_

_"Will he break?"_

_"Perhaps, perhaps not. Only Time may tell."_

_"The future is, for him at least, unwritten. He will forge it unaided by me or mine. It is his story to write."_

_Aggravated beyond measure by their continual disregard, he forced himself to swallow his ire. "This is not about me, it's about _her_! Kaos is waiting for her, she needs help!"_

_Six burning stars appeared around him. They were eyes, he realised, boring into him with all the power the three beings possessed. It was intimidating to say the least, yet he refused to relent and spread his glare across them, impartially. "She will be destroyed," he repeated quietly._

_"So save her, Child."_

_"Or will you stand idly by whilst she is beset?"_

_"Of course I won't! But I will not be enough! I am only a mortal. She requires divine assistance, that of a Star. If none of you will intervene, then tell me where I may find the one named Elysion!"_

_silence followed his heartfelt plea and then the darkness faded into grey. Three forms resolved into being._

_"You seek Elysion?" one of Morpheus' companions inquired mildly. "Whyfor?"_

_"Because he is her soul mate!" he glared at Morpheus, remembering anew how he had believed that of the Dream-lord and how Morpheus had done nothing to disillusion him. Morpheus continued to stare but remained silent._

_"And why do you seek the mate of the Precious Lady in this realm, then?" the second of the lord's companions wondered._

_He took a deep breath and calmed himself as much as he was able. Too many questions with no answers given in turn were trying his patience. Only the sure knowledge that he would need their assistance if he wished to expedite his quest kept him from venting his displeasure, outmatched though he surely was._

_"Enough, my friends," Morpheus abruptly commanded, breaking his silence. "Young Endymion nears the end of his tether and he asks for no more than a few facts with which to find aid for one precious to us all. Whether he has the right of her need is for him to discover."_

_He did not think there was any 'if' about it but, now that the Dream-lord finally seemed accommodating, he deemed it unwise to provoke further argument. "Please, where may I find Elysion?"_

_"Within?" one advised blandly, echoing Tristain._

_The other shook his shaggy head in a kind negative. "Too soon yet. He is not prepared."_

_"Then," Morpheus concluded, sweeping his burning gaze across his associates, "We must see that he becomes so." His star-like stare fixed upon him again. "Long before the time of your rebirth, in the time of your reign as King's heir, my own did reside in Earth's realm. Then came the Fall and Earth's children did fail my child and so I, in turn, did seek restitution. I kept from them the greater portion of my realm until you did pay their debt."_

_He listened closely. What he heard explained a lot but did not tell him what he needed,_

_Morpheus__ nodded regally, acknowledging the truth of the thought for all that he did not voice it. "His shell destroyed, his soul fled but to where, I do not know."_

_So, Elysion had been killed during the Fall. Most likely during the final conflagration as no great changes in the realms, due to divine punishment or otherwise, had occurred til those fires had been lit._

_"Thank you," he said after a moment's thought. "Now I must request a final favour. One of you sent me to the past, I ask that you do so again."_

_"Oh?" asked one of the two unknowns, "And what of the Law of Chronos?" He smiled. "As I think that you are Chronos, I would say it is up to you to decide if my cause is enough to make an exception for."_

_"Well spoken, Child, but…" corrected the same unknown. His cowl slipped back to reveal silky dark locks framing a maddeningly familiar face. "I am not Chronos."_

_"No," said the third and last of the trio, his hood remaining firmly in place, "I am." The god glided closer to him and he was struck speechless by the power of the other as it rolled over him. A pale and slender hand reached forth and a single finger lightly touched his forehead. "Go then, Child, and do what you must. Find what you require and return to your proper place."_

_As the words faded, so did Dream. He was gone._

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

She shone with a transport spell as she arced through space. She didn't really need the spell. There were a dozen easier and more efficient ways for her to follow the spoor of her quarry. She did not need magic to move through space this way and certainly not so slowly. She had cast the spell anyway and it was pink. It was not the colour her magic naturally manifested as. Lunarians tended towards pastels, unsurprising perhaps for a race ruled by a being known as Serenity, and its princess was no exception. Normally her power showed as and extraordinary, but unsurprising, silver but, with a little effort, there was no trace of her natural hue in her spellcasting.

Humans, as opposed to the Lunari, no matter what realm their Earth, or version thereof, inhabited, ranged across the spectrum of what they called visible light and beyond. Prime examples of this were the reincarnates. Between them, they covered the spectrum rather spectacularly. From the pale blue of Amy's clam intellectual nature to the deeper, darker green of Lita's nurturing and protective tendencies to the orang-almost gold of Mina's bright and gregarious self to Raye's intensely passionate scarlet.

Compared to them, pink was a baby colour. It was red before it grew up. It was passion without maturity, emotion unchecked, reckless and rash. Pink power was often scorned for it usually signalled the untempered nature and naivety of its caster. It heralded inexperience. To those that studied such things, an opponent whose signature power was pink was considered a novice, dangerous only in its unpredictability.

Combined with her strength, the deception should prove to be an irresistible lure for Galaxia. Or so 'Eternal Sailor Moon' hoped. Her speed retarded by the façade she had created, she had had entirely too much time to contemplate such matters and their fallibility. For all of her confidence on Kinmoku, the thought of meeting Galaxia was frightening. Not the she would allow her fear to deter her, but Galaxia had been second to only the Heart in power. Had she been a Divine Star, then her defection from the Council's service would have been a disaster beyond reckoning. However, she had lacked the critical element in her spirit that would have made her one. In truth, she had not even been a true guardian, only a mortal whose abilities had earned her recognition from every Star on the Council. As had her loyalty, which only made the betrayal that much greater.

The traces she found were growing fresher. Even slowed as she was, Serenity was fleet enough to gain on traitor. She proceeded with greater caution now. Should she be caught unaware, Sailor Moon would not stand a chance, not against this foe. The Doom Phantom had been a less terrifying prospect… or had that only been because Mamoru had been at her side? She surely wished he was here now. He would have been a comforting presence and, together, nothing could have matched them. She could feel the weight of the crystal where it burned in her breast, reminding her of him. It offered her almost unlimited power but it was nothing compared to the strength he could give her just with his simple touch.

She wondered why he had been in Dream.

Then, all other thoughts gone from her head, Serenity pulled up to an abrupt stop. There, only a few lightseconds distant and approaching her fast, was an almost inconceivable power. One last time, she checked her disguise and then the confrontation was upon her.

"Stop!"

Clad in golden armour, polished to a brilliance that was a direct contrast to the tarnished seeming of the power itself. Copper eyes were empty of soul beneath the golden helm, only darkness in the mind behind them. "Well then, what is this? Another of the fire-flower's little followers? Come to put a stop to my unspeakable evil for good?"

"No." Oppressed by the other's tainted presence, her voice was quiet. Better that and the effort to be heard in space than to let the other into her mind with the easier mindspeech.

Those empty eyes were weighing her. "No? Then what, hmm? You do not appear to be of the fire-flower's people. So who are you then?"

Serenity stood straight and proud and projected youthful certainty for all she was worth. "I am Eternal Sailor Moon," she proclaimed clearly, "On behalf of the Moon, I have come to request that you cease your unprovoked attacks upon Kinmoku."

"The Moon? What moon is that, I wonder…" Galaxia's eyes narrowed. "You speak in the Divine Tongue, you are a guardian are you not? Or at least the servant of a Star. Which one? Which Star is it that has interfered where they have no business?"

"I have come on behalf of the Lunarian queen, the High Lady of the Realm of Mystery. She knows that this is not her realm but she is the closest there is to a reigning Power in this region. So she will act on the behalf of a realm that has no one else."

"And why should I give her what she wants?"

"Because she asks you to and…" Serenity was never given the opportunity to finish. Galaxia's eyes became slits.

"The Moon? You mean Earth's Moon? Where the great one's handmaiden fell?"

"At the hand of a mortal," Serenity agreed tranquilly.

"You will take me there! Now!"

"No!" She had not expected this to be the bait that drew the traitor after her and Galaxia's interest worried her more than a little. That Galaxia had turned against the Council was widely known but this indicated that the treachery was more complete. this was evidence that, behind the mindless destruction, Kaos' designs were being worked towards. Serenity backed away from the other. "No," she repeated and then put as much distance between the two of them as fast as she could without revealing herself and it was not so that she would be underestimated. No, it was so that Galaxia would not realise exactly what had blindly walked into her reach.

It had been a mistake, she realised, a grossly huge error of judgement that could very well cost her her soul. She sensed Galaxia's power rouse and she fled.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Endymion appeared on the rim of a crater amidst a ravaged landscape. Heat still radiated from the mix of slag and rubble, making the environment hostile to all creatures without an enormous reserve of magic to devote to self-preservation. It was devastation on a scale that no mortal had ever before witnessed. And it was fresh.

He did not know how long he stood there, aghast at the sheer loss of life in the ruin of a world. Not too long before this, it had been, not teeming with lifeforms, but thriving nonetheless and the destruction extended past the horizon. The very world had been razed to an extent from which it would never recover. He could feel the vestiges of the world-soul as they faded completely. No amount of healing power would revive this world, none at all. Shaken by the force of his certainty, Endymion sent his mind out, seeking. It took him but a moment to find what he sought, as well it should for he remembered being there.

With the knowledge that Tristain had revived in him, the reincarnate considered his position. Unlike the last time, he was completely inhabiting the realm that his homeworld existed in. It would not be only those gifted with Sight who would be able to see him so he would need to act to ensure that his presence was not discovered. He was here to observe and investigate, not to intervene which he would undoubtedly be forced to do should the local defenders learn of him. Invisibility spells were fraught with danger, especially when utilised to fool those with a great deal of their own innate power, but, hopefully, Endymion's current strength would pull it off. Combined with a broad telepathic suggestion to all and sundry no to look at him directly, as long as he proceeded with care, Endymion should be able to walk straight into the Combined Allied Defence Headquarters, which was excellent as that was exactly what he planned on doing.

He lifted himself from the ground and glided through the thinning air towards his target. As he soared across the scarred surface of the dead world, he could feel its atmosphere being leeched away. Soon there wouldn't be even a hint left to say that this was once a living world. Like the scorched Mercury, the shattered Atlanti and the sterilised Pluto, Terra's Moon would never again be habitable by humans.

The sapphire bulk that was Terra, herself, rose in the sky and Endymion slowed his pace. His target was approaching.

There it was, a small, solitary shuttle. He knew it for one of the three attached to the super dreadnaught, _Icefire_, flagship of the Admiral Khonsu, leader of the surviving forces of the Sol starsystem. The shuttle, itself, was full almost to capacity but only one lonely figure, suited and encased where he should never have needed to be, stood on the cooling surface of the moon. Light from the shuttle occasionally glinted from the figure's helmet but, otherwise, the occupants of the vessel left the man to mourn in peace. For that was what he was doing.

Endymion settled unnoticed by the man's side and touched his shoulder so lightly that he would never be perceived. Instantly, he had access to the man's thoughts. Endymion easily reached past the muffling quality of the space suit to directly touch a deep and vast pool of aguish and rage. This man, Admiral Khonsu himself, was the last and only survivor of the seven hundred year old moon colony. Today he mourned his loss of home and family, tomorrow, he would once again take charge of the forces opposing the witch's invaders. Endymion remembered this personally, he did not need to make this connection while Khonsu was unguarded with grief. He did need to so that he could determine if, hidden beneath Khonsu's awe-inspiring competence, lay the sleep seed of a future god.

Seeds there were aplenty. There were those of greatness that were already taking root, those of power long since nurtured to their utmost, those of destruction that slumbered yet and seeds of the man that Khonsu would become. He was a great and powerful man indeed, he had survived Beryl's razing of his homeland where no other could, he was only thirty years old and unanimously elected leader of the allied forces, he was a master of the element of ice and an acknowledged adept of defencive battle magicks. He was only human. He would one day become the man known as Kian but he would never be Elysion. For an instant, Endymion was relieved despite himself. He had not expected the two to be the same and was blindingly grateful that it was not he whom the mage would lose Serenity to. Then he cursed himself for his petty thoughts and stepped back to think more carefully.

Who the reincarnates had been specifically in their first lives had never come up before, except in Endymion's own case of course but there had been extenuating circumstances for that. Namely a unique crystal that had followed him from one life to the next until he could discharge his duty. The other reincarnates had not had that as a reminder. They had pieced the past together from fragments of legend and lore that had survived the passage of time as well as the fortuitous discover of an ancient version of a time capsule that had been buried beneath Tokyo. It had held accounts of the war, some weapons, some technology and description of the enemy forces but nothing about their own pasts.

Who each of them had been was something each of them had relegated to the list of questions like how they had been reborn that they would never get answers to. During the Dark Moon crisis, the scouts and Tuxedo Mask had, in a roundabout way, guessed the answer to the second question. Endymion was about to learn the answer to the first now. It would make life both less and more difficult. The reincarnates were not candidates for Elysion, that he was certain of. There were too many Stars of one status or another keeping them under observation for Elysion to have been missed in their number. As Endymion was fairly certain the criteria they had been selected for when being chosen for reincarnation included many of the same traits the Divine Stars looked for in their guardians, that surely shortened the list of possible humans of this era capable of meeting them. The problem was, who else was there?

Endymion's first task would be to make such a list for himself. The second would be to eliminate the future reincarnates from it. Then he would need to investigate the rest. This was complicated further by his ignorance as to whether _all_ on the list, bar Elysion, were reincarnated or only a small selection. The ultimate complication would be if he had assumed wrongly and there was no hypothetical list, that Elysion and the reincarnates had nothing whatsoever in common and that Elysion could be any of the half a trillion humans on the various remaining planets still alive at the time of the Fall.

An even more terrifying thought was that Elysion might not even be human, that he might have been one of the countless others to be found. What if he had been of the Delphi, the ancestors of the dolphins, that had not escaped Neptune before it was destroyed? Or what if he was an alicorn? All of them had perished when Atlanti had been shattered. There had been a half a dozen non-human sentient species in the solar system and all but the Delphi had become extinct in the Fall. And then there were the semi-sapient and the non-sentient too! Serenity had once told him that form was unimportant and now he wished he could go back and argue that it was vital. How was he supposed to find Elysion without even a clue?

He started to pace, his boots treading over twenty centimetres above the ground as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. He had to narrow the options down. Elysion had to be of a sentient species, stuff the earthworms have their own civilisation speech. Biased of him or not, he could not see an earthworm or anything less than something with genius level intelligence and self-awareness running Dream after Morpheus. He should know, he'd helped put Dream together into its current form. That still left a dozen sentient species but only those that had lasted until the final conflagration were candidates. That left the Delphi, the Phoenixia of Mars and the Ents of Jupiter.

As the Ents were always paired with the semi-human dryads for the entirety of their lives, they were out. Phoenixes tended to be female and solitary and Endymion could hardly imagine that species producing Serenity's mate. She had told him herself that her preferences were not for her own sex and for one of the rare males to be willing to engage in the kind of pairbond that Serenity would want was so unlikely as to be impossible. There would be no room for solitude in that bond and, while Endymion might covet that closeness, it would drive a phoenix mad.

That left the Delphi. Their migration from Neptune to Earth did not begin until a day or say after the moon colony had been destroyed. If he went to Neptune now, he would have the opportunity to investigate candidates while their entire population was still in one place. Getting there would be a problem though. He was no Serenity to go flying through space without pause.

He slapped his forehead then and accepted the sharp pain as his just-desserts for allowing himself to be so stupid. Not only had he thought himself into a panic but he had forgotten the very lesson Tristain had so recently reinforced in his mind. He stopped pacing and stood still as he enforced order on his chaotic mind. His tasks were still the same, if a little more extensive than he had initially thought: make a list, eliminate any reincarnates from it and find which of the remainder was Elysion. If his conclusions proved false, deal with it when he was certain. Until then, he had a little over three Terran weeks to find which doomed soul was Elysion.

Even as Khonsu boarded his waiting shuttle, Endymion slipped between realms before emerging in this one again above the fathomless oceans of Neptune.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

She was in a condemned building. Mina figured that any damage she caused there would either not be noticed or not be cared about. Either way, that meant no one would come after her expecting her to pay repair bills and, so far, she was right. It was two days after the incident at her school and, while she had been distracted by the one monster in the auditorium, four others had rampaged through the school. Amazingly, no one had been killed but there had been more than one student significantly hurt, not to mention a great deal of property damage done. The school had been closed and arrangements were being made for the students but, for the moment, Mina found herself free to spend her time experimenting with her new abilities.

So far she had refined her ability to form more of the golden chains as well as learned to banish them, saving her from having to worry about a mountain of the things. However, they, themselves, were proving a little more difficult to get the hang of. The idea of magical golden chains that could restrain or slice through something was all very well, but implementing it was not so simple. When she wanted it to go forward, it got snagged behind her. She had tripped herself so many times while trying to loop the golden length around a target that her knees were black and blue. Watching gymnasts with those damned ribbons had made her think it was going to be easy.

Bah!

On the other hand, as a result of her practice making the chains, she had almost perfected shooting shorter, more limited versions of the golden stuff like lasers. That was more satisfying but her aim still left a lot to be desired. Still, she could see a noticeable improvement there, unlike her efforts with the chains.

And her empathy, as she had come to cal her painful knack of eavesdropping on the emotional states of others, was now more or less under control. Sheer self-preservation had forced her to extend her skills in that area and developing a reliable shielding technique had been one of the first things she had focussed on. Once she had that under control, she had moved on to a more subtle and delicate control of that sense. She could now tell if someone or something was coming within a certain distance of her whether it be human or animal or… monster. Which brought her to the big question.

What should she do next?

About fifty metres away from her was a line of tin cans. Taking a moment to centre herself, Mina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she snapped her eyes open again, brought her hand up and pointed at the cans. Seven beams of gold shot from her index finger towards the cans. Four of the cans became slag, a fifth lost a chunk from its top while the remaining two were left untouched. That was pretty good shooting in her mind and she was almost certain she could do just as well, or even better considering the size her targets would be, under attack by one of the monsters.

So… she had magical powers and there were monsters attacking Tokyo and her magical power could hurt those monsters. Was this a coincidence? Raised on magical girl anime, Mina did not think so and she jumped to the obvious conclusion. It was her destiny to save the world from the monsters and win the guy in the process. That there was no guy in the picture yet was irrelevant as was the fact that, so far, it seemed that only Tokyo was in trouble. Blithely, Mina was confident that the guy would show up in due time and that if she failed the world would be doomed. Of course that did highlight her problem. What was she going to do?

Mina walked over to the bare stairwell and sat down. Whatever she did, she was going to need to keep it secret so that the mastermind behind the monsters did not find out who she was or where she lived. That would be bad. Besides, 'mysterious heroine' would sound cooler while she stared making a reputation for herself. Mina was knowledgeable enough about the world to realise that names had power. So she'd need a costume and not one that was too expensive to make because if just practicing her magic trashed her clothes, then fighting was going to be really bad for them and she was strapped for cash. Once she worked that out, then what?

Well, she figured that she could use her empathy to find monster attacks, especially the really big ones. She could feel them, even on the other side of the city. The problem was getting to them. They didn't last very long really. Although it felt like forever when she was the one being attacked, generally the monsters appeared, did what the wanted to and vanished all within about ten minutes. That was not very long when you were trying to get across several kilometres on foot. Driving was completely out of the question, Mina was only fourteen and she didn't think her dad would let her borrow his car even if it was to save the world, which she couldn't tell him about anyway. A secret identity was going to be complicated, Mina realised.

That still left the dilemma of transport. Buses were too unreliable and, after that incident two years ago, bikes were out as well. Mina supposed that, for the moment only, she was stuck to making her way around on foot. That pretty much limited her to the local districts which kind of sucked when you were trying to save the world, or at least Tokyo, but, as fast a runner as Mina was, and she was fast, she could only run so fast. If the problem was far enough away, then she was not going to get there in time. Besides she didn't want to make it just in time only to be too exhausted to fight. That would also suck, big-time.

Mina groaned and jumped to her feet. All this little brainstorming session had come up with was that she was going to be running from battle to battle in some undesignated costume all in secret. It was a pity that her new magic powers did not include anything that would let her fly but that would be too good to be true she supposed. She collected her things and left her 'headquarters'. She would have liked a cooler base of operations as well but, so far, the Crown Arcade had not been attacked so she was stuck with this. Her excitement at the thought of being a famous superhero was replaced with the question of how she was supposed to make it work. Mina had to wonder why it seemed that the characters in manga always had it so easy. Look at Gatekeepers, a secret organisation found the kids, trained them and gave them cool stuff. They just fought in their school uniforms and never had to worry about…

Mina's eyes lit up. She had it!

Her enthusiasm returning in a rush, Mina took off in a sprint for her house. It wasn't like she'd need them anymore, after all. She'd be in a new school for the rest of this year and then it'd be high school and they had a different uniform altogether. She grinned and slammed through the door before tearing up the stairs to her bedroom. After a few moments rummaging through her closet, she soon had a pile of her old school uniforms.

She laid one out neatly on her bed and examined it critically. It was not what she would have preferred but she had a ton of them and so wouldn't have to pay for replacements. They weren't really very flattering though. She wrinkled her nose at the thought, who had ever heard of a super heroine that didn't look cute? Not Mina, well, not any of the cool ones anyway. Well, she didn't have to worry about school rules anymore so she could fix it up to her heart's content.

First things first, those skirts were too long. They'd get in the way while she was running and might even get her hurt if she needed to dodge fast. Besides, Mina had great legs and she knew it. Why shouldn't she show them off? Then there was the top. She supposed that it was okay for the most part, it allowed her free movement, but it really needed something extra. Of course! At the dip of her neckline, where the scarf would have been knotted, she tied a large red ribbon into a bow. All in all, Mina thought as she regarded herself in the mirror, she looked pretty good.

Now it was time to accessorise. School shoes were out, she'd still need them for school and her parents would kill her if she had to replace them. The only other pair of shoes she had was a pair of blue flats that, although extremely comfortable, had no grip to speak of. She solved that problem by applying the cheese grater to the soles. She cringed at the damage she was doing but it worked, they definitely had grip when she was done with them. As finishing touches, she stole a pair of white gloves from her space police costume from the last costume party and the red mask from the one before that.

The final product was not exactly standard super hero get up but it worked. Mina winked and blew a kiss at her reflection. The monsters wouldn't know what hit them. Suddenly, she stiffened, speak of the devil…s. She went to the window, cocked her head and concentrated. Her mental barriers lowered cautiously and she got the distant sense of a lot of people panicking and something hungry enjoying their fear. It was another attack, one of the steadily more common daylight ones and it wasn't too far away. It was the perfect chance for Mina to make her debut.

She rushed out of her room and out of the house. Following her internal radar, she sprinted down the streets while honing in on the source of the fear she could sense and ignoring the occasional strange look. By the time she reached the jewellery shop she was very grateful that her morning dashes to school had left her in reasonable shape. If they hadn't, the run would have killed her, forget the monster.

When she carefully peeked through the large display windows to the shop, she could make out very little in the dark interior. Her empathy was telling her that there was at least a dozen people in there and that they were all becoming weaker but she couldn't see any of them. As for the monster… it was at the back of the shop, or so she thought. Amidst all the other 'noise' it was impossible for her to pin point it.

She took a deep breath and then, forgetting her current attire, as if she was simply a normal customer, she entered the shop. Once inside, the fear was much more overwhelming, as if the walls had been muffling it as they would have real sound. Mina had forgotten how frightening it was to be in this situation. Time had dulled the memories, fortunate for otherwise, she most likely would not have had the courage to do this again. Her breathing speeding up, she made her way through the deepening gloom.

Why was it so dark in there? The sun was still up and shining very brightly.

She stood on something and stumbled. Trivially, she was grateful that she'd worked on her shoes, she'd undoubtedly have fallen if she hadn't. However, the greater part of her mind was absorbed by what had tripped her – a hand. The woman that it belonged to lay unmoving on the floor, pale and faded in her stillness. Mina's eyes were wide as she sidled around the dying woman, for that's what she was. Mina's shields had snapped up again, instinctively and so she did not sense the last of the woman's life-force as it was extinguished completely. She could and did witness the woman's last breath hissing out and the utter stillness that followed it.

Mina's back hit a counter and she stayed there for a moment, staring at the corpse, before she could turn away. Her feigned nonchalance vanished, she hurried deeper into the shop. She went past broken cabinets and more unconscious bodies but did not pause. The longer she took, the more likely the other victims would end up like that woman. It was no longer a matter of her becoming famous by being a super hero, it never really had been, no matter what she had said to herself to keep from being afraid. It was about stopping the murders.

She reached the back room and yanked the door open noisily. The would-be super hero was so focused on finding the cause of the problem that, when she did, she was unprepared for it. It looked like it was made from glass or, perhaps, crystal and it cut just as deeply. The first two shards sliced across her thigh and her forearm without her even seeing them shot. It was only the sudden stinging pains that woke her from her daze and she threw herself to the ground in time to dodge half a dozen more. She scrambled behind a work counter for cover and felt the wood shudder as two more of the projectiles embedded themselves in it.

Bracing herself first, she darted a glance over the edge of the counter and hastily shot one of her lasers at it but, though it may have looed like glass, it was made of something much harder. Her shot chipped a shard about the size of her fingernail off. Considering her opponent was nearly a metre wide and twice as tall, that wasn't much damage. Doing so little, it would taker her forever to finish it off and the people in the shop did not have that time. She dared another two lasers, each as ineffective as the first and concluded that she would need to resort to one of her chains.

She conjured one and clutched it nervously. If it didn't shoot anymore shards at her for about twenty seconds, she should be able to get the shot off. If the monster didn't move, she should be able to hit it. If she was lucky, her chain would be able to do what her less powerful beams could not and actually hurt the monster. And, if she hit it right, she might even be able to disable it with one shot. That was a lot of ifs.

She swallowed convulsively and stood. She didn't even get the chance to start swinging the chain before she had to throw herself down again. One of the new barrage of shards went completely through the counter and past Mina, missing her by only a hairsbreadth. She gasped, jerking away reflexively. Unfortunately, that moved her out of what little cover she had and left her open once again. The monster flicked three more shards at her and she brought her hands up defensively. The chain followed and clipped two of the three missiles so that they were deflected harmlessly. The third grazed her side and tore through her shirt.

Distracted by the unexpected pain, she didn't see the monster raise one of its bladelike arms and start to swing at her. Someone else, however, did. A flash of red and green flickered across her peripheral vision and the monster was stopped cold. For a moment she stood, staring at it dumbly. Between it and her was nothing more than a single rose, embedded in the wooden floor by its stalk.

"Move! The stay spell will last only a minute!" A man's voice broke her from her stasis.

Seizing the opportunity that had been given to her, she swung the chain around and wished with all her might that it would cleave the monster in two. It did not do that but it did cause a significant cut. Pleased that she had even hit it, Mina tried again and then managed a third strike before whatever magic cast by the owner of the voice was dispelled. The monster resumed its swing as if nothing had happened and fear propelled Mina for a fourth and final attack. Her chain did not cut this time, instead it wrapped around the transparent thing, binding it and immobilising it. Then, almost viciously, Mina pulled the chain taunt. The tension was transmitted along the golden length as were her intentions and the loop of chain that encircled the monster tightened. Crystal shattered as the golden loops pressed in and, moments later, all that remained was a pile of shards.

"Nicely done," she was told and she swung around, another length of chain appearing in her hands. Leaning gracefully against the door frame was a man clad in a tuxedo, cape, top hat and mask. He looked very elegant and quite dashing dressed like that but also a little silly considering the circumstances. Still, a cute guy was a cute guy and this one had save her life to boot.

"Thank you," she replied sweetly and smiled prettily. If she was still wan with fright and the shock of having seen a woman die, he did not mention it.

He did mention something else, just as uncool in her opinion. "You were very lucky though."

Her charitable thoughts towards him disappeared. She did not want to be reminded of that! She did not reply and settled for glaring at him.

He merely stared at her coolly, unaffected by her disapproval. "Your spell casting was clumsy and hesitant. You need to improve it if you plan on making a habit of monster hunting."

Her glare deepened. She practiced! And what did he know have stuff like this? All he'd done was chuck a stupid rose at the thing and he hadn't even hit it! Who was he to talk? "Well what do you suggest?" she retorted sarcastically, "That I call Harry Potter up for lessons?"

"I suggest you start with grounding. You cannot expect to cast accurately if you have no stability. Then you should learn to find your centre. That will allow you to concentrate on the spell, regardless of distraction. Then you should practice willing your power to obey you. Do not wish for it to do something,_ make_ it do it!" With that final, emphatic, piece of advice, the man spun, his cloak twirling around him dramatically, and strode away.

Mina stared at the empty doorway with her mouth open. That had actually made sense… sort of. It had sound very familiar anyway. She closed her mouth as she tried to summon the wisp of memory. She gave up after a minute with no success. It was still pretty good advice, even if Mina privately believed he had read it in a manga somewhere. Of course, he hadn't told her _how_ she was supposed to ground or centre herself. Big help, wasn't he?

She sighed and set about finding the phone to call the authorities. There were still people here who needed help, even if the monster was dead. She could worry about weird men later. Still… he was very yummy.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Terra's heir wore not the traditional black armour, but crimson mage battle robes. Tall and straight, despite his seventy-three years, his short cropped hair was still thick and black with only a streak of silver at each temple to show his age. Endymion nic Terra did not lead here but his words were those of a Seer and lent further weight by his unequalled experience. Indigo eyes swept the room and then fixed upon Khonsu.

"She is coming. It will begin soon."

Khonsu's gaze was clear and steady. "You are certain?"

"Aa. Terra whispers to me of her sibs and her sire. Pluto is dead but Neptune senses the witch's darkness creeping forward as she crosses her brother's path." The man looked to Romulus, one of the Twin Wolves of Uranus and commander of the Outer Fleet grimly. "Neptune slips into dormancy for it is her only protection. Soon, the witch and her foul minions will gather her into their net and, to survive their depredations, her spirit must hide. Your father-world will follow suit and will soon be uninhabitable. I told Remus of this and he informed your council. They will not act."

"What would you have them do?" Romulus growled back, "Flee to Terra, even as the Delphi do? Beg you and your father for sanctuary? No, Endymion, even were your resources not stretched to their utmost, our pride would prevent it. The nation of Uranus will survive or not through our actions!"

"Uranus will survive," the prince replied flatly, "But its people will not."

Beside him, the second Wolf, Remus, regarded him expressionlessly. "You have Seen it?"

"Aa." At this, Endymion slumped and his true age began to show. The dark skinned Mercurian strategist, Zaknaf Do'Urden, pulled out a chair and he sank into it gratefully. His gaze was turned inward but sorrow hung in his expression and posture. "I see… Death. I will not survive this last battle and neither will any of you here. The witch, this Beryl, comes like a plague, unstoppable and implacable. The Outer Ring will be lost, the Fleet should be pulled inwards. For them to try and stand in defence is pointless. They will only die and leave the inner rings vulnerable. Terra and Venus, these alone may stand strong."

The other advisors in the room, execs, tacticians, intelligence officers, and communications personnel, came from throughout the solar system and some resented the Terran heir's bald statement. Muttering of favouritism began but, to the surprise of all, it was Romulus who ended it.

"Quiet!" He glared away from the screen towards his own, unseen, officers and snapped, "Endymion has never concealed that Terra's interest are amongst his foremost concern. It is one of the reasons Khonsu leads us, not him, _but_¸ nor would he lie about what he Sees. You have Seen this, I trust, Endymion. You are not simply extrapolating?"

The old mage smiled bitterly. "I have Seen the outer worlds' surfaces scoured bare of life. I have seen fire and death and darkness. Terra Sees through me and her sibs through her. To survive what we have Seen, they will sleep, this she has told me. Even should we triumph, they will be centuries in the awakening. Their children must flee or they are doomed.

"Mars will likely join them, Atlanti's destruction shocked him grievously. Venus is shielded by Terra but, should that shield even risk failing, regardless of the outcome, she will sleep. Terra, alone, will remain awake to the end. That I have Seen. That I _Know_. Make of it what you will."

And they did. The best and brightest of the Solarsystem's defenders gathered together to plan out what could be their last stand. As the Terran prince had stated plainly, the enemy was almost upon them. The losses already incurred in this terrible war were irrelevant, only the resources that could still be brought to bear now mattered. The three fleets must join together and fight as one, seemless whole if they were to stand strong and sacrifices would need to be made.

And all the while desperate strategies were plotted, a figure from the future grimly watched, hidden and unsensed. Three weeks of searching had been for naught and not amongst any of his wanderings had Endymion found the soul of he who would become Elysion. His time amidst the Delphi had rewarded him with no more than the identity of the original incarnation of Michelle. The diminishing human population of the Outer Ring had provided no clues and those surviving in the Inner and Second Rings had also had a dearth of potential candidates. Those with the power and the will had all long since joined the fight and, likely, so had Elysion.

Thus, Endymion had come to sift through the thousands of souls who were stealing themselves to die nobly that their worlds might survive and, here, on the bridge of the _Icefire_, had rested his greatest hopes only to be dashed. Zaknaf, she of the silver hair and quicksilber intellect would not be Elysion but was destined to become Amy Mizuno. Romulus and Remus, both grizzled and scarred with age, though they were years younger than Endymions past self, would be Alex Ten'ou and Zack Smithsen but not he whom Endymion needed. Guardsman Himura would become Nick while Paris the Venusian commander would become Jyp and then there was the intelligence officer, Jarod Ri, Khonsu's comm. Officer, Guinan, captain of the _Icefire__, _Drake, Battle adept Lar'eth who were, one and all, good and strong souls but no more than that. Elysion was not present and Endymion was at a loss.

For all of his efforts, he could not find the gold he knew from memory and, perhaps, he should have sought out something more distinctive than a golden power from a vision that now seemed all too long ago. It was possible that even his deeply intrusive probes could not penetrate through the bindings that must lay around a dormant Star's power. He had been told that Elysion was unaware of his true self, so it must be buried deeply. But he'd had no more on whish to search so what else could he have done? And now he was out of time.

Even as his past self's head snapped up, hearing the cries of billions as they slipped from this realm, Endymion pummelled his mind for something, anything, that he could do that he had not already done. A place he had not searched. A clue he had not seen. The warriors in the room rushed to their stations and, around him, the bulkhead began to move. Endymion allowed himself to pass through it without resistance.

Time no longer held much meaning for him. The rest of existence continued while he focused on his dilemma. He drifted outside the outer hull, blindly watching the Allied Fleet ponderously move into place. And, there at the limit of his sight, was a wave of approaching darkness that crushed all in its path. When that wave arrived, his chance would be gone. He could hear the echoes as Uranus and Jupiter's awarenesses slipped from reach. The conflagration was about to be lit and he had failed. Elysion was unfound. All that remained was for him to watch.

He watched as utter darkness met a desperate spectrum of light. He watched as every minor power in the Fleet combined to attempt to match the wave of darkness. Here and there, two or three pinpoints of power joined to become a whole greater than the sum of individual components but they were rare as were the soulbonds that made such mergers possible.

He watched as, finally, all the ships in the Fleet achieved their necessary positions and the planned defensive net was employed. Now, in a uniform and calculated manner, the pinpoints of power were linked together. Mages joined and strengthened through a conduit of technology provided by the ships that carried them. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet – it was a rainbow display of power of all colours and more that repelled the darkness.

But that darkness was merely the beginning. The next wave was tangible evil. Ships crumpled under the onslaught and entire sections of the glittering web were torn awry. Endymion remembered this, remembered the terrible hopelessness that had swelled around him. Hopelessness compelled by the overwhelming odds against them. He remembered being wilfully oblivious and rallying his people. And, there, a crimson point flared brighter and the points near seemed to gain renewed strength.

Other points followed suit. There was the green-gold that was Paris, awakening his fellow Venusians. There were two pale yellow, almost white, pints, so close as to be one, joining together and refusing to surrender as Uranus' Twins Wolves would never do. Points of power flared into brilliance while others died and the wave came onwards, its approach barely hindered by the defenders efforts.

And Endymion watched.

He watched as, finally, the evil faltered. He felt the Allied Fleet's all to brief moment of triumph turn to ash as the face of the evil's source was revealed. Her minions coiled and writhing around her as she sat on a throne of bloodied bones, her long hair was the colour of dried blood and her skin like that of a corpse, Beryl was enough to turn a man's heart to ice on her own but, this time, Endymion saw further. Behind soulless eyes waited a miasma of foulness to be unleashed. A part of Beryl and yet separate, it was the origin of the witch's unheard of power and, this time, Endymion knew enough to recognise it.

A Darkstar.

He did not remember it from the first time he had lived this battle and icy fingers of dread trailed down his spine. The Allied plans had been formulated to stop a mortal, a powerful one, but still mortal. Those plans did not account for the Darkstar and would fall before it like so much dust. He yearned to intervene, his heart aching for the devastation that was to come and, in his unguarded empathy for those who would fall, he made contact. For he was not the only watcher of this tragic spectacle.

There was the warm presence of Mars.

There was the dancing mystery of Venus.

And, there! There was Endymion's own beloved Earth.

For an unmeasured instant, the four souls grappled for understanding for, though they were all known to the others, there were unexpected differences. It had been years since Endymion had felt any but his bondworld and years since he had felt her this aware. And never had he known any world as clearly as he could meet with all three of the remaining worldsouls now. For, in the coming aeons, they were not the only souls to change. Where the worldsouls had retreated, Endymion's had bloomed, something he only really began to understand when he saw how his lady Terra held the image of him-as-he-was along side he-as-he-would-become.

He had no time to contemplate what she showed him. He could only hurriedly explain to her what her defenders faced. Endymion felt Mars and Venus as they trembled with fear, but his own brave lady stood strong. He felt her reach to calm her sibs even as she assimilated his reasons for being there. In the end, it was Terra who decided.

It was she who then coerced her remaining sibs into dormancy. The weight of responsibility for survival of life in the solarsystem now rested upon her alone.

It was she who, carrying Endymion's awareness with her own, swept over and invigorated the defenders. She wrested control of the defending net into her own grasp, strengthening it as only a soul housed in the bedrock of a planet could. She goaded the efforts of every mage and every ship to further peaks of excellence. She stoked the net higher and higher, to a summit of brilliance that no human endeavour had ever matched.

It was she who initiated the last resort. She began the cascade that would lead to the Final Strike, something that was more prayer than spell, offering up all the casters' powers as sacrifice. She then gathered the souls of her children and her sibs' children into her protective embrace as their combined powers escalated and then released, racking reality in a culmination of destruction. Existence burned. Beryl and the Darkstar she hosted fell through the tears in the stuff of creation, banished to such a place that they would be aeons returning.

It was she who took the backlash of it upon herself. She accepted the wounds the flailing energies inflicted as the convulsing realm struggled to recover itself.

It was she who pointed out to the living mind with her the spark of silver as it swallowed a crimson soul so that he could call it to hand.

It was she who, crippled and hurting, handed her precious burden of souls whole and undamaged into the embrace of Death's messengers.

It was she who held the door to the realm of Death open just that little bit longer so that her future prince might begin his search anew.

She was hurt beyond compare and how she could heal from these wounds, Endymion did not know. He was loathe to leave her in such a state but she had made her will plain. She had known his past self and would come to know this knew self and knew, too, of their overriding purpose. Indeed, she had made it her own and would not die now, not before she had met his lovely Usagi and seen her receive the gem they both guarded. So she urged him forth and he could only accede to her wishes, sending her but a single burst of unconditional love before turning to leave her behind.


End file.
